1^^ 



ALLIER 



HIS PARENTS 




Class 'J1 ' Z4'? ^j 
Book._ 1 

(jop}Tightlf.v^iA3> 



ROGER ALLIER 




Roger Allier 



ROGER ALLIER 



By 

HIS PARENTS 

Introduction by 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT 



Authorized Translation from the French by 
Henry H. King 




ASSOCIATION PRESS 

New York : 347 Madison Avenue 
1919 






Copyright, 1919, by 

The International Committee of 

YoireiG Men's Christian Associations 



iv'AK 12 ;9ij 



©CI.A5126S2 



^\-Q 



ROGER ALLIER 

By Theodore Roosevelt 

The volume before me is a family book, not intended 
for publicity, written to preserve the memory of a young 
man, Roger AUier, a subaltern in the Chasseurs Alpins, 
who in the first year of this great war, with quiet heroism, 
laid down his life for France. The book is by his father, 
Raoul Allier, a professor of Protestant theology, in Paris. 
The family is a Protestant family — at the time of the 
boy's studies in the Latin Quarter there is much mention 
of his belonging to the Association of Protestant Stu- 
dents. Pie had all the intensity of religious belief of his 
Huguenot ancestors, although, of course, with a width 
and liberality which they were denied ; and it is interesting 
to see how this young man, who proved himself a soldier 
of such gallant type, was deeply concerned, before the 
war, in the problems of industrial democracy, in raising 
the living, housing, and working conditions of the laboring 
man. The preface of the book is very touching. Al- 
though it is written only for the family and friends, yet 
it expresses a spirit of such fervent devotion to and intense 
pride in France as explicitly to disclaim that the gallant 
record of the young lieutenant stands by itself, or is more 
than illustrative of the many, many thousands of similar 
careers of the Frenchmen who have given their lives that 
France may live. 

The great interest of the book lies in the fact that it 
vividly sets forth the moral preparation which made this 
youth and his fellows able to check the flood of German 



vi ROGER ALLIER 

aggression in the first two months of the war. The 
astounding victory at the Marne, a victory of untold con- 
sequences to civilization, was due to the m.oral regenera- 
tion — and the physical training necessarily accompanying 
this moral regeneration — which had taken place within 
France during the decade preceding the war. This book 
shows how this regeneration was accomplished. The let- 
ters of the boy, showing such keen perception of moral 
laws, form a document of permanent worth to all believ- 
ers in the manhood which treats both valor and gentle- 
ness as essentials. Roger Allier was of the stamp of our 
own men, like young Shaw and young Lowell, who went 
into the Civil War in the highest crusading spirit. He 
served in the Chasseurs Alpins, a body of soldiers whose 
extraordinary endurance and boldness are due partly to 
natural aptitude and partly to a severe and prolonged 
training of such a character as to raise the man far above 
the average level — and, by the way, this intensive physical 
training exerts a profound effect upon the soul, upon the 
moral qualities, of the man who undergoes it. This book 
sets forth in detail the work, practical, methodical, and yet 
permeated throughout with a lofty idealism, which pro- 
duced these incomparable soldiers. The account would 
have a direct technical interest for every student of mili- 
tary affairs in the United States who wishes to know how 
to train to the highest degree a select body of fighting 
men. 

But the great interest this book holds for America is not 
only, and indeed not mainly, for soldiers; the lesson it 
teaches is a lesson for our entire citizenship. Considering 
the dreadful misery and suffering that have been inflicted 
upon France, the book is singularly free from bitterness; 
and this although it appears that the gallant young fellow 
was himself killed while wounded, and in an ambulance, 
under circumstances of shocking barbarity. It is good 



ROGER ALLIER vii 

for us to realize the heroism that France has shown. Small 
nations, under exceptional circumstances, have in the past 
shown a like heroism extending over a long period, and 
great nations have shown such heroism for a short period. 
But I question if history shows any such drama of sus- 
tained heroism on the part of a great nation, a nation of 
forty millions of people, as France has shown during the 
last three years. Let our people profit by the example. 
And let them remember that this heroism is due to the 
moral preparation, the moral regeneration, and the accom- 
panying physical training of the French in the six or 
eight years preceding the war. 

The great regenerative movement was genuinely moral; 
which means that it was the direct antithesis of the flabby 
and unhealthy sentimentality which travesties and de- 
grades morality by seeking to make it a synonym of 
sham and cowardice and hypocrisy in such movements 
as those of the professional pacifists. 

All true elevation of soul must be accompanied by a 
certain prepared readiness to use the body as an effective 
instrument for the expression of the soul's desires. All 
real morality must have in it an element of strength. 
Brutal and arrogant militarism such as that of Napoleonic 
France and of the Prussianized Germany of the Hohen- 
zollerns is a terrible evil. This means that moral weak- 
ness and pacifism and fear of or inability to oppose such 
militarism is a crime against humanity ; for the existence 
of soft timidity in one nation puts a premium on brutality 
in another. It is no accident that in the United States 
the professional pacifist, the anti-preparedness man or 
woman, is a tool and ally of German aggression against 
not only Belgium and France, but America. It is no acci- 
dent that the professional pacifist who is actuated by 
weakness and timidity always finds allies in the most 
brutal sections of the community. The mob that com- 



viii ROGER ALLIER 

mitted murder and torture in the draft riots 'of New- 
York in 1863 was instigated and led by men who an- 
nounced that they were for "peace" and were against 
mihtarism and the draft. Many of the violent copper- 
heads of Indiana were lawless and murderous people; 
and yet their leaders all declaimed continually in favor 
of "peace," and used precisely the arguments of the 
professional pacifists of our own day. "Every old age 
of gold was an iron age too, and the meekest of saints 
may find stern work to do in the day of the Lord at 
hand !" The golden hopes of mankind can be realized 
only by men who have iron in their blood ; by men who 
scorn to do wrong and equally scorn to submit to wrong ; 
by men of gentle souls whose hearts are harder than 
steel in their readiness to war against brutality and evil. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction v 

Foreword xi 

I. Childhood and Adolescence i 

II. In the Latin Quarter 13 

III. England and Scotland 29 

IV. Albertville 49 

V. Albertville (continued) 73 

VI. Grenoble loi 

VII. Annecy 123 

VIII. Paris and Tignes 157 

IX. Aime-en-Savoie 191 

X. The Battles of Saint Die 219 

XI. A German Hospital 239 

XII. May 19-JuLY 13, 1916 249 



IX 



TRANSLATOR'S NOTE 

This translation is from the authorized French edition. 
A few short passages, and the Appendices, have been 
omitted because the material contained in them was not 
considered of particular interest to American readers. 

The translator wishes to acknowledge his indebtedness 
to Miss Elsie C. Harris, Mrs. G. J. Livingston, and Mr. 
E, Guy of the French High Commission for much valu- 
able aid and many discriminating suggestions. 



FOREWORD 

This book was first written for relatives and friends. 
Those who knew and loved Roger Allier still love him and 
would like to know him a little better. They pool their 
recollections. They re-read together the old letters. The 
uninterested may find this wandering among relics a little 
tedious ; but those who linger over these remembrances 
in poignant grief, have only one regret: that they cannot 
stretch out the journey. The correspondence the pages 
of which they turn with deep feeling is rather volumi- 
nous; they quote only a small part of it, and they are 
sometimes tempted to ask themselves why they have not 
reproduced more. 

It would, of course, have been easy, with the hundreds 
of letters at their disposal, to publish a collection which 
would have constituted the diary of a chasseur alpin from 
191 1 to 1914. Such a diary would not be without value. 
Certainly it would be wrong, in these tragic hours when 
every regiment piles sacrifice upon sacrifice, to set up an 
odious comparison to the advantage of any one. The 
savage hate of the Germans, however — and their admira- 
tion — for the "Blue Devils" is a well-known fact, which 
no one has a right to suppress and which means much. 
What the chasseurs alpins have been during the War 
is explained quite simply by what they were in times of 
peace. You understand it all when you have before your 
eyes the diary of an alpin, beginning with the day when 
he took his place among his comrades as a private up to 
that day when, after serving his time as a non-commis- 
sioned officer and officer in all the rigor of training, he 

xi 



xii FOREWORD 

set out for the front at the head of the machine-gun 
section. 

But one does not feel disposed to pay too much atten- 
tion to the tales of "petty warfare" when the "big war" 
is unchained and marching in blood. The time will come 
when, to understand the things of today, it will be neces- 
sary to know the work of yesterday. A diary of this sort 
will then be reckoned at its full documentary value. 

He who lives again in these pages was not by any means 
an exceptional being. Thousands like him are dead, men 
who were indeed his brothers and his equals in intelli- 
gence, morality, high ambitions, and determined devotion 
to justice and truth. Among these many had his ardent 
faith in God and in Christ. He is only one among them, 
and a place apart is not asked for him. But if the 
phalanx of those who are like him is so great and if the 
larger part of those who belong to it have been mowed 
down, one trembles before the crime which has been com- 
mitted against humanity. And one shudders also at the 
thought of those who before God and men bear the 
responsibility of this crime committed under the invoca- 
tion of the Lord of Hosts. 

Argentieres, September 25, 1916. 



CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE 
(1890-1907) 

The "Ecole Alsacienne" — Religious instruction — First 
impressions of Scotland — Tayport — Glentyan — Waver- 
ings — Vocation. 



CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE 

Roger Allier was born in Paris on July 13, 1890. His 
early life was uneventful — a normal boyhood, marked by 
no noteworthy incidents but the thousand trifles, recalled 
with eagerness by relatives, that indicate the awakening 
of personality. His studies were pursued at the "Ecole 
Alsacienne," from the time he was six years old till he 
took his bachelor's degree in philosophy. For many 
years in the Rue Denfert-Rochereau one could see the 
group of comrades, like a flock of sparrows, twittering 
and playing on their way to school, under the care 
of older boys more or less responsible for the lively group. 
Notable among these were Raphael Andoyer, Pierre 
Kruger, and Edmond Boegner. 

Roger worked for the most part under those professors, 
many of whom are now gone, who have impressed upon 
the "Ecole Alsacienne" its distinctive character. One of 
them, Mr. Adrien Krebs, exerted a powerful influence on 
the boy. He was one of those teachers who regard teach- 
ing as much less a profession than a ministry — the 
shaping of souls, rather than the mere training of intel- 
lects. He possessed without knowing it the art of com- 
municating by little tricks, of which his young hearers 
spoke sometimes with a smile and often with deep feeling, 
his consuming passion for everything that is beautiful and 
good. He communicated to his pupil a fervent love for 
the language and literature of ancient Greece. This love 
never left Roger. He wanted much to follow up the 

3 



4 ROGER ALLIER 

studies to which Mr. Krebs had introduced him. Though 
not specially drawn to the profession of teaching, he 
debated for a time whether or not he should enter this 
particular field, in order to pursue his passion for all 
that is summed up in Hellenism; it was for this reason 
that he enrolled in the course in advanced rhetoric in a 
lycee in Paris, and he never gave up reading the language 
he so greatly loved. One of his most-prized gifts from 
his father was a New Testament in Greek, printed 
at the Oxford Press, which was given him in 1905, 
Later, in active military service, he profited by an occa- 
sional leave to select from his library and take back his 
Homer or the Tragedies in the original. 

His religious instruction began under Pastor Elie 
Bonnet, when he was in the fourth form. He was with 
him for three years. At the end of the third year, he 
felt himself still too young to take his first communion. 
It was not that he was deterred by doubts ; but he wished 
to do nothing of importance without a full understanding 
of the reason, and he was resolved to take this step only 
on that day when the act would mark a decisive point 
in his life. He asked his father during the school year 
1 905- 1906 to give him special lessons in the development 
of religious revelation in the history of the human race. 
He wished to trace at the same time this development in 
the spiritual history of the people of Israel and in the 
Christian Church, and to make an appraisal of the place 
that Christianity occupies among the religions of the 
world. He was in the first form when on Whitsunday, 
1906, he decided to take his first communion. He did this 
with such an elation of spirit that in the afternoon of 
that day, while at Versailles at the annual conference of 
the Student Christian Association of Paris, he felt the im- 
pulse to tell all the friends whom he met of what he had 
done that morning, and his eyes were shining with joy. 



CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE 5 

On leaving the first form he went to Scotland, where he 
spent two months. He had already been there with the 
hockey team of the "Ecole Alsacienne," to take part in 
a game with the pupils of the Naval School of Osborne. 
This time, however, he went all alone, to experience free- 
dom. He experienced it, though barely sixteen years of 
age, in a place where he felt his individuality was deeply 
respected and where he was in contact with a virile piety 
which opened wide horizons to him. The weeks which 
he passed with Pastor Halliday's family, at Tayport, were 
surely among the happiest of his life. He threw himself 
with eagerness into all sorts of physical exercise — swim- 
ming in the Tay, long bicycle rides, endless hours of golf. 
He had as a companion on these rides and partner in his 
sports a young relative of the family, Sydney Martin, 
who fell afterward on the field of honor in France. At 
the same time he exposed himself to all sorts of questions. 

Tayport, July 29, 1906. 

At nine o'clock Mr. Halliday holds worship in Eng- 
lish. All the members of the household gather for this ; 
and I, I follow with a New Testament in English. 
After that we go into what Mrs. Halliday calls the 
greenhouse, or conservatory. There Mr. Halliday has 
me read aloud from the newspaper. He tells me in 
German the words I do not know and thus I am becom- 
ing familiar with English politics (the Nationalists, 
the Liberals, the education bill, the motor-cars ques- 
tion), as well as all other events (the dissolution of 
the Duma, the interview of Mr. Stolypine and the ex- 
deputies, the Dreyfus affair). . . . After read- 
ing the paper — which teaches me a host of useful 



6 ROGER ALLIER 

words — I play the violin for an hour. Then, I learn 
the words which I have jotted down in my note- 
book. . . . 



All his letters bring enthusiastic descriptions of what 
he sees, whether at Tayport, or on a trip with Mr. Halli- 
day into the extreme north of Scotland, or in the excur- 
sions which he makes all alone in the "Highlands." He 
would like to engrave everything for all time on his 
retina: Dundee and its cathedral, Edinburgh, which he 
calls a wonderful city but does not wish to describe for 
fear of being unequal to his subject — he has heard it 
compared to Athens, but he thinks it is still more beau- 
tiful than the Greek city — the forests of beeches and 
Highland pines, the "Highland cattle" with their great 
heads and enormous horns, Loch Katrine with its wooded 
little islands where one looks for the silhouette of the 
"Lady of the Lake," the towns which recall the heroic 
victories of Wallace and Robert Bruce, Inverness with 
its Cromwellian fortress and Macbeth's castle, the battle- 
field of Culloden, the galleries of the cliffs of Lossie- 
mouth in which he buries himself for hours with his 
bicycle lantern, "imagining myself," says he, "with Uncle 
Lidenbrock on his voyage to the center of the earth." 

The religious life of Scotland immediately interested 
him. July 31, 1906, he wrote: 



Last Sunday I went to church for the first time. 
The edifice is surrounded by a cemetery, and makes no 
show on the outside, though magnificent within. It 
was nearly full, although there was a service at quarter 
after eleven in the morning and another after luncheon. 



CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE 7 

Mr. Halliday preached a sermon on Christianity and 
the decadence of the Roman Empire. This I did not 
entirely understand, but I read and translated it in 
the afternoon with Mrs. Halliday. Some fine hymns 
were sung. Everybody sang, and not listlessly as in 
Paris. It is most extraordinary to hear so many male 
voices in a church. Every day the Salvation Army 
goes through the streets singing to the accompaniment 
of horns, snare drums, and a big bass drum. Sunday 
nobody works ; where ordinarily there are trains every 
half hour, there are but three in the entire day. People 
are expected to read only religious works. I read a 
considerable bit from my Greek Testament and started 
a life of George Buchanan. The rest of the afternoon 
we sang or played on the piano, the harmonium, or the 
violin. 

He did not forget that he would one day be a student 
and he read with very keen interest a collection of medi- 
tations delivered before the students of Harvard Uni- 
versity in the United States : "Afternoons in the College 
Chapel." 

Two things struck him particularly in the Scottish piety 
with which he was being made acquainted. The first of 
these was a scrupulous regard for the truth, a horror of 
lying, a sort of worship of intellectual and moral 
loyalty. During the years that followed he never ceased 
to praise this trait. The second was the constant devoting 
of oneself to practical morality. . . . 

These impressions are strong in the young Frenchman, 
who receives them without analyzing them keenly, but 
who will bring back from this contact with Scotland a 



8 ROGER ALLIER 

fixed criterion of religious life and a firm insistence that 
conversion must give rise to tangible results. 
■ The intimate relations betw^een his father and Mission- 
ary Coillard and the kindly recommendations of Mr. 
Alfred Boegner and of Captain Bertrand, of Geneva, 
secured for Roger the acquaintance of Mr, Richard 
Hunter, the great Scottish friend of the Zambezi Mission. 
He was invited to spend a few days at the latter's place in 
Glentyan, near Kilbarchan, in Renfrewshire, not far 
from Glasgow. There, he finds himself in the family of 
a great manufacturer, who devotes himself to his business 
from day to day without being a slave to it; who does 
not feel that his duty as a citizen and a man is ended 
when he has left his ofiice, and for whom leisure hours, 
wisely planned, are a means of enlarging unceasingly 
his vision of mankind and of taking in hand things that 
go far beyond the immediate horizon, such as the amelio- 
ration of the living conditions of workingmen, the con- 
struction of hygienic houses, the education of orphans, 
the preaching of the Gospel in the village near by, and an 
intelHgent share in the apostolic efforts being made in 
the heart of Africa or in India. While Mr. Hunter inter- 
ests himself in the most minute details of the French 
Mission on the Upper Zambezi, one of his daughters, 
with whom Roger takes many walks in the neighborhood, 
is getting ready to go to India with the Young Women's 
Christian Association. 

All these interests and many others proceed from the 
very heart of the piety which Roger meets at Glentyan. 
He is all eyes and ears for what surrounds him: 

Glentyan, September i8, 1906. 

Saturday being a holiday, Mr. Hunter did not go 
to town. He took me to Kilmacolm, about ten miles 



CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE 9 

from Glentyan. It is a typical Scottish village, built 
of grey stone, on the side of a wooded hill, a veritable 
jewel of cleanliness and order. Some distance from 
there, on the summit of a hill, Mr. Hunter has built a 
home for orphans. There in that bracing atmosphere 
live about one hundred boys and girls whose educa- 
tion is being most carefully directed. They learn the 
trade for which they show the most pronounced natural 
ability and are prepared for the struggle of life. 

The buildings, from which there is a splendid view 
of the surrounding country, are very interesting and 
should be described in detail. The interior is remark- 
ably clean. Everything is shining. The corners of the 
rooms are rounded, so that there is no place for the 
slightest grain of dust to settle. The furnishings are 
in the "new art," at the same time simple and very 
artistic. All gives the impression of cleanliness and 
well-being. . . , Mr. Hunter has built through- 
out Scotland a large number of such houses. 



Before leaving Scotland he stops for a week at Edin- 
burgh, at the home of the Reverend Mr. Benvie, who 
takes it upon himself to make sure that he sees everything 
of interest in the city and its environs. 

On returning from this trip Roger enters a class in 
philosophy. He has for a professor a very learned man 
who does not deny the existence of religious phenomena, 
but who studies these phenomena almost exclusively in 
insane asylums and thinks he has taken adequate account 
of them when he has been able to deliver some observa- 
tions, more or less foreign, on a degenerate of the Sal- 



lo ROGER ALLIER 

petriere or a demented one of Sainte-Anne. One should 
have seen the smile with which Roger, returning from 
a class where the professor had spoken to his pupils 
of some of his spiritual discoveries, related these to his 
father. Moreover, he took occasion to explain to the 
professor before his amused friends, that he had, in the 
life of normal men, met with much more interesting 
phenomena than those that he was bringing to them from 
the hospitals. 

While he was attending this class in philosophy, a 
problem was continually putting itself before the young 
man with a force that was growing more and more dis- 
turbing : to what career should he devote himself after his 
graduation? If he had had a special aptitude for mathe- 
matics, he would have wanted to go to the Polytechnical 
School or the Central School to have one day the joy 
of building locomotives. He knew that it would be 
somewhat unwise for him to devote himself to that line. 
He had to be content to collect documents on the latest 
types of these engines. Up to his death he was a sub- 
scriber to an English review. The Railway Magazine. 
Physiology was not without its attraction for him. Above 
all, he would have Hked to continue the study of classic?! 
antiquity; but the teaching profession, most decidedly, 
did not appeal to him. He found himself at the end of 
the school year without having made any decision what- 
ever. The long vacation was spent in a continual exam- 
ination of conscience. He was not able to make lip his 
mind. It was during the prolonged meditations of two 
months spent on the Rigi that the thought of matriculat- 
ing in the Law School came to him, and little by little, 
led him towards a resolution. It was during this so- 
journ that he felt, for the first time, in the ascent of 
Titlis with his friend Andre Guex, the awakening of 
his taste for Alpine climbing. His decision, however, 



CHILDHOOD AND ADOLESCENCE ii 

had not yet been formed when the end of the vacation 
came. In order to give himself a few weeks' respite, 
he asked his father to enroll him in the advanced rhetoric 
course of a lyceum in Paris, This delay sufficed to draw 
him from his uncertainty. He told his parents that he 
was going to begin his. law course in November. 

He never dreamed of becoming a lawyer. His aim was 
to present himself some day for the competitive examina- 
tion for admission to the Conseil d'Etat.^ Two very 
different considerations led him to this determination. 
In the first place, being much interested in social ques- 
tions, he could not help being struck by the way in which 
Parliament too often legislates on these questions. Nine 
times out of ten, the Houses enact laws that are almost 
inapplicable; the essential thing is to have made a show- 
ing in order to appease the voters. They adopt, then, a 
provision that a ruling of the public administration shall 
determine the actual method of application of the law. 
It is the duty of the Conseil d'Etat to render a little more 
nearly feasible the hasty work of Parliament. It is more 
and more evident that this body is called on to play a 
leading part, both in construing the laws voted by the 
Houses, and more especially in formulating proposed 
laws. Roger felt the importance of functions which, 
without ever bringing the least popularity to those who 



^ "France has ... a special institution under the name of 
Conseil d'£tat, which was introduced by Napoleon I., and has 
been maintained since. It is presided over by the Minister of 
Justice or (in his absence) by a vice-president, and is composed 
of Councillors, Masters of Requests (Maitres des Requetes), and 
Auditors, all appointed by the President of the Republic. Its 
duty is to give opinion upon such questions, chiefly those con- 
nected with administration, as may be submitted to it by the 
Government. It is judge in the last resort in administrative suits, 
and it prepares the rules for the public administration." — "The 
Statesman's Year Book," 1918, p. 808. 



12 ROGER ALLIER 

discharge them, nevertheless offer an opportunity to 
render the largest service to our democracy. In the 
second place, he was living in a milieu in which all the 
problems brought up by the separation of Church and 
State were the object of constant thought and daily con- 
versations. It was justifiable to think that the Conseil 
d'Etat, in the midst of the struggles which seemed on the 
eve of springing up, would be called on to become the 
arbitrator in the great interests in question, to determine 
the true limits of the domain of the State and that of 
conscience, to specify and to defend, at the same time, the 
rights of the State and the liberty of the religious con- 
sciousness. These were the two trains of thought which, 
a little abruptly, led the young man to decide in favor of 
studies to which he had given little consideration up to 
that time. 



u 

IN THE LATIN QUARTER 
(1907-1911) 

Program of studies — The Association of Protestant 
Students — With the miners of Henin-Lietard — The 
"White Star" — Examinations. 



II 

IN THE LATIN QUARTER 

In November, 1907, Roger matriculated in the Law 
School and in the Free School of Political Sciences. 
The usual length of time given to studies in the Saint- 
Guillaume Street building is two years, after which the 
pupils take the examination for their diplomas. He 
decided not to present himself for this examination until 
the end of the third. If he thus stretched his preparation 
over a longer time, it was not, by any means, to lighten his 
work; it was in order to be able to follow at the same 
school, along with the special studies of the law course, 
other courses which had no immediate interest so far as 
his diploma was concerned, but which seemed to him 
valuable for general culture. These were especially 
those courses bearing on the development of social ques- 
tions or on the relation of Church and State in the differ- 
ent countries of Europe. He was, also, in the Law 
School, a faithful listener in one of Mr. Charles Gide's 
courses, one which did not help him toward his master's 
degree, but which bore often on the problems facing a 
democracy. He also attended with the greatest interest 
the public course which his father was giving at the 
Protestant Theological School on "The Conflict between 
the Modern Conscience and Religion." Finally, this 
school having organized during the academic years 1908- 
1909 and 1909-1910 some courses in advanced religious 
instruction, he enrolled there immediately; being also 
monitor in the Sunday school of Luxembourg Chapel, he 

15 



i6 ROGER ALLIER 

was kept very busy in discharging his simple duties ac- 
curately. 

Although busy with so many duties, Roger was very 
desirous of keeping up with his dearest comrades those 
ties which are so sweet during the years of study in com- 
mon, and which differing choice of careers so often 
loosens or even completely severs. Friendship was a 
need of his heart. But it was not with him an exclusive 
relationship. He was not one of those who have one or 
two intimates and who give to these all their affection. 
Nor was he what they call a "good fellow," one of those 
individuals who have the air of giving themselves to 
everybody and who really give themselves to none. When 
he left the "Ecole Alsacienne" and began his student life, 
he sought to avoid as far as possible the danger of 
separation from those with whom he desired to continue 
intimate. He asked his parents to hold regularly for his 
personal friends a little informal reception. The third Sun- 
day in each month in the afternoon Roger's friends, Pari- 
sians or not, were sure to find him and his parents at home 
in the house on the Raspail Boulevard. There were no 
invitations. Those came who wished to or who could. They 
talked of all manner of subjects just as they came to their 
minds and with no constraint. The most weighty discus- 
sions of the outside world had here their echo at times. 
Often, they limited themselves to exchanging impressions 
of the different courses of study in which each was inter- 
ested. They vibrated in harmony in their enthusiasm 
over some of these and they united in laughing at others. 
The end of the afternoon arrived and they were loath 
to separate. Several of their habitues still like to recall 
these meetings of the "third Sunday." 

At the time of his return from Scotland in 1907, Roger 
became an active member of the Association of Protestant 
Students at Paris. For a long time he had known of the 



IN THE LATIN QUARTER 17 

Student Christian Federation and its program. At the 
end of September of that same year he accompanied his 
father to Sainte-Croix and took part in the conference 
of the Christian Student Movement of French Switzer- 
land. While he found in the headquarters in Vaugirard 
Street an agreeable meeting-place with good comrades, he 
also gained a conception there of the religious work 
which could and should be conducted among the stu- 
dents of the Latin Quarter. Surrounded by young men 
at grips with all the problems of moral and religious life 
and in quest of convictions which enable one to serve 
one's country and humanity truly, he felt the heavy 
responsibility which rests upon those who know what 
they believe and why. He asked himself if those who 
have this privilege do not take too easy a satisfaction in 
an unconsciously egoistical enjoyment of it, and if they 
make sufficient effort to possess in a personal fashion 
that which they have perhaps received passively. He 
would have wished that the Paris Association might be- 
come in increasing measure a liberal school of strong 
convictions. Having been from the first day very 
strongly drawn to the general secretary of the Associa- 
tion, Th. Cremer, then to his successor, Armand Kuntz, 
he became acquainted with the nucleus of students who 
put before the pleasure of making acquaintances the 
duty of blazing forth the principles of the Association. 
The realization of this program seemed to him impossible 
without serious study and he gave ungrudging help to 
those who were trying to form study classes : 

"We are beginning to notice that there is a weak 
point in our defense. The convictions which we pro- 
fess do not rest on a sufficiently solid scientific under- 
standing. The researches and conclusions of biblical 



i8 ROGER ALLIER 

criticism are too foreign to the majority of us. It is 
high time that we open our Bibles together and that 
we cease to leave to the unbelieving a monopoly of 
historical research. It is not at all a question of aban- 
doning the big assemblies.^ To these, however, we 
should add group meetings for the study of the Bible 
in a spirit at the same time religious and scientific, 
believing that this study, instead of shaking our con- 
victions, will give them more force. I permit myself 
to make an appeal to all the students. They should, 
when coming to these evenings of study, feel abso- 
lutely free. We appeal not only to Christian students 
firm in their faith, but to all those who doubt, to 
seekers, and to agnostics. We wish to do violence to 
nobody's personal convictions, but to leave to each one 
a feeling of unhampered individuality. Our ideal is 
a foyer in which students will be associated in a serious 
search after the truth." 



These words were spoken by him, in November 1910, 
on the occasion of the reopening of the Paris Associa- 
tion. But before being appointed by his comrades to 
formulate a program in their name, he had had three 
years of personal application of the principles v/hich were 
dear to him. Before extolling meetings of this sort, he 
had made the experiment with his intimate friends. He 
knew by experience the efficacy of what he was recom- 
mending to others. 

He was also one of those who feel that Christian 



^ An allusion to the meetings which the Association was hold- 
ing each year for the general public. 



IN THE LATIN QUARTER 19 

students should find time to devote to social questions. 
He longed to be in contact with these, otherwise than 
through books or lectures of his professors. At the end 
of 1909, an occasion offered itself to meet several of 
them in the flesh. He seized it with eagerness, though 
it deprived him of a joy which to him was most dear, 
that of passing the Christmas holidays with his parents. 
It was not mere intellectual curiosity, however, that 
made him decide to give up this joy. He felt that the 
refusal to do a little work for others would be a strange 
way of celebrating the birthday of Him who came only 
to give Himself. 

The minister, Mr. Rene Pfender, who had invited him 
to Henin-Lietard, himself tells of this visit in a letter to 
Roger's parents, written at St. Die, July 21, 1916: 

"Sharing the concern of the Association of Christian 
Students to interest the youth of the universities in the 
conquest of our country for Christ, I had the thought that 
a particularly efficient method would be that denoted 
by the 'come and see' of the first disciples, consisting 
in having the students visit centers of evangelistic work, 
which would thus serve as tangible evidences of the 
power of the Gospel today. I had, therefore, asked my 
friend, Grauss,^ to find some student willing to pass the 
Christmas holidays at Henin-Lietard. Roger Allier was 
the first to respond to this appeal. Interested in social 
questions and desirous of ascertaining how the Gospel 
works the transformation of an industrial community, he 
'came and saw,' and saw in the best way, by participating. 

"It was on the morning of Christmas Day itself, about 
eleven o'clock, that he got off the train at the ugly little 



^ General Secretary of the French Association of Christian 
Students. Left in August, 1914, as sergeant in the Forty-first 
Regiment of Territorial Infantry; commissioned sub-lieutenant 
in June, 1915. Died of wounds received in battle, August 29, 1918. 



20 ROGER ALLIER 

station of this important mining center. We went 
at once to the church, where we found the young people 
busy trimming the traditional fir tree. At once, Roger 
took off his gloves and his jacket, climbed a ladder, and 
was at work. This spontaneity, so simple, in a trice won 
for him the liking of the young mine workers. 'He is not 
proud, that one there at least.' For many years after 
they recalled this detail." Roger on his part wrote: 



Mr. P fender was awaiting me at the station. I 
knew him even at a distance. We had been at the 
Grand Chasseron together [allusion to an excursion 
made in common when at the conference of Sainte- 
Croix]. What a dreary country! I am a few steps 
from Courrieres. There was something gloomy in 
passing the little stations of Sallaumines, Billy-Mon- 
tigny, and Menicourt. How many unhappy memories 
and what gloomy scenery! As soon as I arrived, I 
broke the ice by helping with the Christmas tree. To 
these honest miners, young and old, one is immediately 
like a brother. A student who speaks to them as a 
comrade is listened to with open mouth. Thus I 
became acquainted with all the members of the church ; 
we talked together a great deal and they taught me 
many things. The thing that touched me was the way 
in which the parents came to shake my hand. I spent 
an hour and a half in chatting. I already know quite 
a bit about mining. 

Mr. Pf ender s letter continues : "Towards evening, 
parents and children filled the large church for the Christ- 



IN THE LATIN QUARTER 21 

mas celebration. Roger was a little uneasy at first, be- 
cause he was addressing such an audience for the first time. 
Touched with emotion, he pleased young and old by a 
pretty Christmas story from which he drew several les- 
sons. The next day, Sunday, he attended morning worship 
and Communion ; in the evening he gave a talk before the 
Christian Society on the progress of Christianity in the 
Far East. There again, I have a very vivid remembrance 
of the undivided attention with which the young miners 
listened to him and of the impression they in turn made 
upon him. Nothing could be more natural : he laid before 
them practical evidences of the universal power of the 
Gospel, and from his meeting with them he carried away 
another proof of it. 

"That his visit exerted a beneficial effect on our young 
people in Henin-Lietard and on him also, I have no doubt. 
xA-fter this sojourn Roger subscribed for L'Ami^ in order 
to follow in it from month to month the news of the coal 
valley. We kept up a correspondence and I should like 
to quote some passages from his letters, if invasion and 
pillage had not destroyed them. For their part our mem- 
bers, in their long chats at the Young People's Foyer, 
never recalled their old memories without mentioning 
Roger in a special manner. Under the rough exterior of 
the miner beats a warm heart and lives a faithful memory. 
When, after the victory, the church of Henin-Lietard 
shall count its dead and commemorate their deeds, it 
will salute as its own two volunteers for Christ and 
France whom it has known and loved, Francis Monod 
and Roger Allier. I cannot help associating with the 
name of your son that of Francis Monod, for they are 
the two French students who have left in my heart the 

^L'Ami, a popular evangelistic paper, published by Pastor 
Delattre, has in each of its issues a little supplement devoted to 
news from the coal valley. 



22 ROGER ALLIER 

dearest memory; since they have fallen I cannot think 
of the one without at once having the other appear in 
my thought. Surely they are, elsewhere, carrying on 
their work for the Master, under more direct orders than 
He gives here below. . . . " 

Naturally, Roger was eager to see the miners in the 
midst of their actual life and work. Thanks to a young 
engineer, Mr. Beigbeder, he made this underground ex- 
cursion under excellent conditions which permitted him 
to investigate everything. It was not without emotion 
that he put on the blue shirt, trousers, and vest, the grey 
cap covering the head and hiding the hair, and the round, 
soft, broad-brimmed leather hat, laced the heavy boots, 
and took the hammer and the safety lamp. He had not 
the sensation of putting on the tourist's disguise, but 
rather that of becoming a miner with the miners. He 
wished to see everything: "With a mine overseer, I went," 
said he, "for kilometers on all fours and on my stomach, 
and I am worn out." From this descent he brought back 
sensations never to be forgotten. 



Henin-Lietard, December o.'j, 1909. 

My impression is very simple and can be summed up 
in a few words : Up to today I was absolutely ignorant 
of what a mine is. In the first place, the work of a miner 
is brutalizing to a degree that I had never imagined. 
Secondly, I used to imagine that a mine was a very 
simple affair, and in reality it is one of the most com- 
plicated that one can imagine. There are no "miners." 
There are fifty different types of workers in the "pit" 
of the mine, without counting innumerable others who 
work "in the daylight" and make the coal go through 



IN THE LATIN QUARTER 23 

all sorts of operations before it falls automatically 
into the railway cars. . . . 

Walking in the galleries is out of the question : one 
must go on all fours, or more often on the stomach, 
dragging oneself along by the aid of the hands, which 
smart from contact with sharp bits of coal lying every- 
where about. One holds one's lamp before him and 
at times (I am not exaggerating) in order to pass, 
one must tip it : there is not room to hold it upright. 
The gallery is sometimes several meters wide, what I 
have just said applying only to height. The height is 
still further diminished by scaffoldings of wood, which 
support a frightful pressure and are too often rotten — 
whatever the companies say when an accident hap- 
pens. One comes at last to a place where the heat and 
coal dust (which takes fire at nothing at all, as at 
Courrieres), make the air scarcely breathable. One 
sees then, lying on the ground, three or four sweating, 
half nude human beings, pounding to break up the coal. 
They break up as much as possible of it in a day, for 
they are paid by the task. This is the universal cus- 
tom. 

The strongest impression that one has in these ex- 
cavation chambers is how terrible it would be if a 
scaffolding should break : one would be immediately 
annihilated (I cannot find another word) by the thou- 
sands of tons which are above one's head. And in the 
case of an explosion, can you imagine the flight in this 
dark prison, with the lights extinguished? And what 
then, when you are caught in one of these airless little 



24 ROGER ALLIER 

cells, more terrible than the little dungeons of Louis XI, 
are you to do in case a slide separates you from the 
rest? 

If you ever go down into a mine, you will see that 
this impression is terrible. One understands how it is 
that during the months and years since the disaster, 
the Courrieres company has not been able to jEind a 
sufficient number of workmen to keep the mine going 
— so terrified are they at the mere sight of such and 
such a pit of Billy-Montigny ! The company has 
changed the numbers of these pits, and it seems that 
this little ruse has to a large extent succeeded in chasing 
away those awful memories. This little psychological 
touch shows you how simple and childlike are the 
minds of the miners. 



If he was eager to study all the social reforms that he 
could, he felt at the same time that reforms should not 
end when they touch only on the exterior of groups of 
human beings taken collectively; that a new society will 
be nothing if it does not form new men; and that, by a 
sort of paradox which has the appearance, but nothing 
more, of argument in a circle, this society itself can be 
founded only by men whose inner lives shall have already 
been made new. That is why he did not recognize a 
piety based primarily upon rites or dogmas. While attach- 
ing to knowledge the value we have seen, he conceived of 
religion above all else as the essence of life, and that life he 
refused to reduce to emotions. He saw its worth much 
less in the sentimental effusions which it may provoke 
than in the conduct that it inspires. Respect for self and for 
woman was in his eyes the test by which the validity of 



IN THE LATIN QUARTER 25 

many revelations may be proved and at the same time the 
prerequisite of true social action. He was very much 
concerned over the necessity of making these principles 
understood by two classes of persons, those who call 
themselves social reformers and those who style them- 
selves thinkers, both of which classes display too often 
a guilty indifference toward questions of private morality. 
He was convinced that Christian students ought to be 
on the front line in the battle against an attitude which 
constitutes, in the case of the former, participation as 
an accessory, and in that of the latter cowardly apathy. 
He was on the alert on every occasion to proclaim 
before his friends his belief in the greatness of morality 
and in the profound role of a virtue of which many men 
affect to speak only with a smile. In February, 1910, 
knowing that the Congress of the Student Christian Asso- 
ciation to be held at Palavas was to discuss Association 
activities, and being unable to attend the Congress in 
person, he wrote the following letter to his father, who 
was to preside at the meetings : 

Schloesing^ and I are desirous of having action 
taken at the Palavas Congress in favor of the White 
Star. ... I have never been able to understand 
why in a circle of Christian students so little time 
should be devoted to the question of morality. It is 

* Robert Schloesing, left as second lieutenant of the artillery 
in August, 1914; made lieutenant July 14, 1915, and killed Sep- 
tember 29, 1 91 5, in Champagne, cited in the army order of the 
day: "Showed himself from the beginning of the campaign 
wholly devoted to his duties and discharged with devotion, intel- 
ligence, and tact, the missions entrusted to him, notably those of 
liaison agent of the division commander. He was killed in the 
exercise of these duties while trying to cross a heavily shelled 
strip of ground." 



26 ROGER ALLIER 

time to put these points forward. It is necessary to 
undertake something in the Association itself before 
thinking of exerting an influence on the students out- 
side. It is for that reason that Schloesing will deliver 
this month an address on the question of sexual moral- 
ity. It is for this also that I have engaged him to say 
a few words at the Congress at Montpellier. This 
will be only a beginning. 

He has had to do this in writing, since we both stay 
in Paris. He has considered the question like an artist. 
Both the form and the contents of his letter, which, 
moreover, was written very hurriedly, will astonish 
some members of the Congress. As he has signed my 
name, I wish to explain to you exactly in my own 
words what our thought was. I am sure that you will 
catch my meaning at once; for I shall content myself 
with reminding you of some ideas of your course on 
"The Conflict of the Modern Conscience and Religion," 

We maintain that with our comrades the question of 
morality ought to be approached from a special angle. 
Each age has its needs. These reflect the spirit of the 
day, which is characterized by a reaction against all 
forms of asceticism ( I am summing up in twenty words 
several of your lessons) ; there is an affectation for 
identifying not only religion, but plain moral discipline, 
with hatred of nature; in them one pretends to see the 
breakdown of that same personality which one wishes 
to develop with intensity in every direction. 

This decision being reached, in what spirit ought the 
question of individual morality to be approached ? By 



IN THE LATIN QUARTER 27 

taking the point of view of our contemporaries in so 
far as it is sound, by placing ourselves on their own 
ground — for this is the only way of being understood 
— by showing them that moral discipline does not tend 
toward the contraction of the human being but toward 
his largest development. If it is the development of 
their personality that they are seeking, it is necessary 
to show them they are deceiving themselves when they 
believe they find it in "the right to live as they like." 
True happiness does not go without a certain portion 
of asceticism. That is what Schloesing said ; but I fear 
that he said it rather baldly. His letter will astonish 
some people, less moved than he by the esthetic side of 
Hfe. 

If there should be discussion and opposition, I beg 
you to make it understood, in our name, what was in 
our thought. We wished to say this : The White Star 
ought not to frighten those who do not desire asceticism. 
We are not ascetics. While making no concession to 
the "new paganism," we affirm — placing ourselves on 
the same level as its defenders — that moral discipline 
is the condition of an intense and beautiful life. 



With his friend Schloesing he was dreaming of some- 
thing else than a momentary demonstration. He proposed 
to Grauss to introduce in the Semeur a supplement de- 
voted specially to moral propaganda and to the efforts of 
the White Star among students. This supplement would 
have to be printed separately for wide distribution in the 
Latin Quarter, The project was taken into considera- 
tion. To make it amount to anything would have called 



28 ROGER ALLIER 

for spare time which Roger could no longer find. In 
June or July, 1910, he passed the examinations admitting 
him to the bar and obtained his diploma from the School 
of Political Sciences. The academic year of 1910-1911 
was for him one of intense toil. He was resolved to 
discharge his military service at the usual age, if possible, 
after passing all his examinations. On the advice of 
Mr. Lyon-Caen, then dean of the Law Faculty, he at- 
tended the first year courses during the mornings and 
in the afternoons the second; he passed the first exam- 
ination in July and the second in November, when he 
had already been at the barracks a month. On his return 
from service, the complicated life which he led was an 
obstacle in the way of his taking up again at once a 
project which still was very dear to him. Then, there 
was the War. 

In the meantime two trips to the other side of the 
Channel had enriched his young experience. 



Ill 

ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 
(1909-1911) 

The conference at Oxford — Mansfield House — Ber- 
mondsey — Second visit to Scotland — Camp Moffat — At 
Dairy and Glasgow — A social investigation — Preparation 
for military service. 



Ill 

ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 

In July, 1909, Roger was a member of a delegation 
sent by the French Student Christian Federation to the 
Conference of the World's Student Christian Federation 
held at Oxford. He eagerly attended all the meetings of 
the Congress, interesting himself deeply in the work of 
the Federation in the different parts of the world, espe- 
cially in the Far East, making a more and more complete 
appropriation of the watchword of these enthusiastic 
young people, "Make Jesus King," talking with all those 
who have the privilege of rendering anywhere a useful 
service, and renewing through contact with all these 
stirring ambitions his own aspirations in the quest of 
a field of action. At the same time, he acted as interpreter 
for his father, whom he accompanied to all the com- 
mittee meetings or gatherings of "leaders," and thus be- 
came better and better acquainted with Federation prin- 
ciples and methods. 

At home he had heard repeatedly of the efforts made 
several years before by some students, grouped around 
Pastor Tommy Fallot, to get into touch with the 
working classes, to know them better, and to work 
with them and for them. He had also heard much about 
the university settlements, both in England and the 
United States, and he envied the opportunities which our 
Anglo-Saxon comrades possess of becoming acquainted 
with the life of the lowly, the humble, the downtrodden 
of this world, and of thus playing their part as active 

31 



32 ROGER ALLIER 

citizens of a democracy in travail. The Oxford Con- 
ference being ended, he had the joy of reahzing a desire 
which had long pursued him : accompanied by his father, 
who was also glad of the opportunity, he went to the 
University Settlement of Mansfield House, in Canning 
Town, one of the poorest slums of London. He himself 
related his experiences and his observations in an article 
which, in spite of the youth of the author, the Reverend 
Elie Gounelle insisted upon publishing in his review, 
Social Christianity. 

While working with his friends at Mansfield House, he 
thought of the other university settlements of London, 
of which he had so often talked with his father. He 
wished to visit at least the principal of these, and realized 
this wish to the extent of paying a visit to Bermondsey 
and Toynbee Hall. 

London, July 24, 1909. 

Day before yesterday, I went to an address which 
had been given me, to visit the settlement of Bermond- 
sey. This address was incorrect, or rather, the man 
who gave it to me had confused two different insti- 
tutions. He had sent me to the "Oxford Medical Mis- 
sion," which is also a kind of settlement or residence 
of students or former students. Arriving there, I 
asked for the person who had invited me to luncheon. 
They did not even recognize his name. There was 
nobody in the house; the table was set, and I was 
hungry. The maid asked me to sit down, and I rested 
a little. But I must have appeared stupid : being sure 
of myself, I had not brought the letter inviting me to 
luncheon, so I was in an odd situation ; I had a little the 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 33 

appearance of committing an offense which we call in 
legal terms swindling or petty larceny. Finally they 
found for me the right address of the Bermondsey 
Settlement, and I arrived there an hour and a half late. 
Pastor Hannam, who had invited me, had gone out 
with Mr. Mann, one of the German delegates to the 
Oxford Conference, to show him the settlement and 
neighborhood. I regretted very much the loss of the 
meal, not because of my stomach, which was appeased, 
but because it would have been very interesting to talk 
with Mr. Hannam, who is a young pastor full of en- 
thusiasm. He is a fine specimen of a smooth-faced 
Englishman; he wears a business suit, and with his 
sprightly gait and long strides, I cannot picture him 
in a frock coat and top hat. It is necessary to say that 
he is not a member of the Church of England ; he has 
the appearance of a Non-conformist. 

The settlement of Bermondsey is Wesleyan. I vis- 
ited it in my turn with Mr. Hannam, to whom I ex- 
plained my lateness. It is a much more important 
settlement than Mansfield : the work is the same, but 
on a much larger scale. Although the settlement is 
only twenty years old, the building is immense. There 
are large rooms, but not too large, for they are easily 
filled with the various meetings, addresses, concerts, 
Bible study classes, and other gatherings which are held 
there. At Bermondsey, the district is more interesting 
and poorer than the Canning Town neighborhood. 
Here, one is in the middle of the docks, very near the 
Thames, crowded in the midst of sky-scraping ware- 



34 ROGER ALLIER 

houses where accumulate products from all parts of 
the world. The air is laden with smoke, even in clear 
weather. Railway trains roar along the viaducts on 
every side. In the streets and in the small houses 
swarm immense crowds, in which predominate scantily 
clad, crying, fighting children. 

I have tried to give an account of what is being 
done here for them. But it is in winter above all that 
one ought to visit these districts, if one would see to 
what pauperism, not poverty, can lead. For there 
are hundreds of thousands of men, women, and chil- 
dren who are in that condition, either because bru- 
talizing labor brings them only starvation wages, or 
because they have no work at all. A few scores of 
rich shipowners, on one side, and on the other, thou- 
sands and thousands of poor wretches — there is the 
population of the shores of the Thames; it is a veri- 
table nightmare. When one has seen that, one does 
not desire to return to Piccadilly or the West End. 
One can understand why students should wish to live 
in the workmen's neighborhood and avoid everything 
that separates them from the people. I met some 
who even found the university settlement house too 
luxurious, and who had bought right in the heart 
of the slums a little house like those in which the work- 
men's families live. They are happier there, because 
it is still more easy for them to become friends of 
these poor people. 

I have not the time to write at length about what 
I saw in the settlement itself. Every time that I visit 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 35 

one, I ask for a report. That is the most practical 
thing. It is what I did yesterday when visiting Toyn- 
bee Hall. I regret not having gone there with Father, 
who would probably have been very glad to see it 
again; for it is not very far from here and perhaps 
we should have had the time to do it together. He 
will recall that, from the top of an auto-bus, we had 
noticed the whole Jewish section, on our way from the 
City. It is in this quarter, where the population is 
almost entirely Israelitish, that Toynbee Hall is located. 
It is a part of the notorious district of Whitechapel. 

At the end of the following academic year, Roger left 
again for the United Kingdom with the oldest of his 
sisters. The objective of the trip was Scotland. The 
passage through London was rapid, and mainly con- 
sumed by a search in a special shop for pictures of the 
newest types of locomotives ! 

He had hardly arrived at Edinburgh when he had the 
privilege of being present at a ceremony strangely new 
to a young Frenchman : 

Last Saturday I made an extremely interesting 
journey, one which I shall remember for a long time. 
Miss Steven's^ brother is a Captain of the Highlanders 
and is just now in the mountains with 7,000 men. He 
invited me to visit the camp and to witness the pre- 
sentation of a flag to one of the companies by Mr. 
Haldane, the Minister of War. 

^ Roger and his sister were in the boarding-house of a Mrs. 
Steven. 



36 ROGER ALLIER 

The setting was marvelous. There could be nothing 
prettier than the hundreds of little, pointed white 
tents standing out clearly on the grass and the heather, 
surrounded here and there by small clumps of pines 
and with the great mountains towering above them. 
It was a sort of immense clearing, in which the High- 
landers in uniforms of many colors maneuvered with 
perfect regularity to the accompaniment of the wild 
shrill accents of bagpipes. You cannot imagine the 
beauty of this sight. There are colors which it is 
impossible to describe. 

The ceremony was composed of extremely com- 
plicated rites and had been carefully ordered before- 
hand. Several hundred people had come to witness it. 
A large part of the ceremony was religious ; a minister 
of the Established Church offered a prayer, which 
could be heard very easily, so deep was the silence. 
The musicians played hymns and at a given moment 
the voices of thousands of men followed them spon- 
taneously and with a truly touching earnestness. 

It always produces an extraordinary impression 
upon me to hear sacred music rendered in the open 
air by thousands of male voices. It is unfortunately 
an unknown thing among us. And I am persuaded 
that it is in large part from it that the strength of the 
popular English movements comes. When, in the 
month of last July, I saw at Hyde Park 200,000 men 
proclaim their willingness to support the cause of 
justice against the privileges of aristocracy and wealth, 
they did not disband without asking the aid of God 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 37 

in a hymn. Who knows whether many of the unde- 
cided were not carried away by this reHgious enthu- 
siasm? After Mr. Haldane's speech, I dined in a 
large tent with some officers. They were veritable 
giants, with blond hair, faces bronzed by the open air, 
and really superb uniforms. 

He had gone to Scotland with the desire of enrolling 
at the Scottish Summer School for the Study of Mis- 
sions, a large assembly which is held at Moffat, in a tent, 
in a sort of camp. This conference lasted from the first 
to the eighth of August. He stayed from the beginning 
to the end: 

Moffat, August 3, 1910. 

I am scribbling these lines in my tent. Today is 
the second day at Moffat. I left the Stevens' Monday 
afternoon. Mrs. Steven made me a present of a fine 
Bible in English, in a little pocket edition, with flexible 
edges and having a supplement of Scottish psalms and 
hymns. This Bible is extremely useful, as I have re- 
peatedly experienced since I have been at Moffat. 

I found at Edinburgh a whole caravan coming to 
Moffat. We had special carriages; that is equivalent 
to an introduction, and contrary to the English custom 
we dared to speak to one another. I met here again a 
number of the students who had been at the Oxford 
conference. 

All the men, or nearly all, are Student Volunteers 
for foreign missions, belonging to many different 



38 ROGER ALLIER 

schools. Among the 300 people who take part in the 
meetings nearly all are young, that is to say between 
eighteen and twenty-five years, approximately. We 
are four men to a tent. The camp is quite far from 
Moffat. It is pitched in a meadow. The old tower 
serves as a kitchen. They gave us a great heap of 
straw which we shared, each one carrying away to 
his tent as much of it as he could. With warm cover- 
ings over me and my Macfarlane as a pillow, I slept 
very well in spite of the river which flows through a 
ravine below and makes no small noise. As I cannot 
yet give you my impressions of the missionary meet- 
ings, I content myself with sending you the program, 
which will permit you to follow me hour by hour. 

As you see, there are prayer meetings from nine 
forty-five to ten thirty-five, which all the members 
attend in a group. Then come classes for study, by 
sections of ten persons or thereabout, with each person 
prepared to give a report on a specially assigned chap- 
ter of Mott's book, "The Decisive Hour of Christian 
Missions." From twelve to one there is an informal 
discussion of the subject that has been taken up. The 
afternoon is completely free. One is strongly urged 
to spend it in physical exercise, in order that the mis- 
sionary classes may not have for their only result 
mere artificial and momentary emotions. At last in 
the evening comes the volunteer meeting, intended pri- 
marily for future missionaries, that is to say, for the 
majority of the men or women students present. Such 
is the outline of the meetings at Moffat. The meet- 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 39 

ings by sections are held in each tent, in the free 
church, in the estabHshed church, or in the different 
rooms connected with the churches. The general 
morning and evening meetings are held in a large tent, 
like that at Les Ombrages. 

I have bought Mott's book, as well as "Personal 
Economy and Social Reform," which, contrary to what 
I had thought, has no relation at all to foreign mis- 
sions, but deals exclusively with home missions. 

For those, laymen or ministers, who wish to devote 
themselves to the evangelization of Europe itself, the 
thorough study of social questions is considered here 
as having capital importance. The Christian Student 
Movement and the Student Volunteer Movement have 
already published several works, which are being 
spread broadcast in the churches through the study 
circles. These works are rather specially devoted to 
the Anglo-Saxon world, where social questions are 
different from those among us. But they seem to me 
interesting, and, as they are inexpensive, I will pur- 
chase some of them. 

The foundation on which the meetings at Moffat 
rest is provided by the study circles, which were organ- 
ized some years ago in the different local churches 
for the purpose of studying missionary questions of 
the world in general — from the strategic point of view, 
as Mott would say — instead of continuing to limit the 
interest to one or two missionaries in a small, fixed 
corner. This study is difficult, especially in the rural 
communities, where the people are, of course, very 



40 ROGER ALLIER 

little acquainted with the different religions which are 
striving for the conquest of the world, and particularly 
for that of the Far East, which, at this moment, is 
absorbing to such an extent the attention of the Anglo- 
Saxon world. But the study is made easier by 
informational books, like that by Mott, which the Stu- 
dent Volunteer Movement publishes and disseminates 
through the churches. They have already sold 20,000 
copies of Mott's book in England and Scotland. Here 
are some figures for Scotland alone : the study circles 
number 500, with 4,000 members. Four hundred new 
members joined last year in the wake of a campaign 
undertaken simultaneously by 150 students of the dif- 
ferent universities in Scotland, These people who 
came to Moffat are all members of study circles. 

These are all of my impressions for the time being. 
What especially strikes me is the enthusiasm of the 
young people who are here, particularly in my tent. 
The Edinburgh Conference^ gave them a great im- 
petus. A large number of them besides, came from 
Baslow,^ where this year's conference brought together 
1,700 men and women students. 



^The World Missionary Conference, which brought together 
the delegates of 159 societies and which was one of the most 
important events since the beginning of the century, was held 
this year, June 14-23, at Edinburgh. On arriving in the capital 
of Scotland, Roger hastened to visit Assembly Hall, belonging 
to the School of Theology of the United Free Church, where the 
Conference had had its meetings. 

*The annual conference of the Christian students of Great 
Britain and Ireland is held ordinarily at Baslow. 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 41 

August 10, 19 10. 

The missionary week is ended. I left Moffat Sun- 
day evening, and returned to Edinburgh, whence I 
went to rejoin Renee at Dairy. . . . The weather 
was not very favorable at Moffat. The days were gen- 
erally fine, although the sun did not often come out, 
but nearly every night we had terrible showers. As I 
was well covered, that did not bother me. Only the 
end of my nose was cold. Except for one time, our 
tents resisted very well and did not let in the water. 
I also slept very well, from eleven o'clock in the 
evening until eight o'clock in the morning. As we 
were on high ground our camp was much exposed to 
the wind, and my face is well burned. I think that the 
sharp air did me much good. There was very fine 
weather the last two days, and the grass in our tents 
finally dried out. 

We made regularly a large mess of "porridge," 
which we cooked in a huge saucepan, and our meals 
were very bountiful. All four of us were pressed into 
the service Sunday, to wait on table. I have begun my 
letter with these material details, thinking you would 
be impatient to know that I am in good health. 

With a student from Aberdeen I took long bicycle 
rides in the surrounding country. The country is full 
of wild gorges; but unhappily it is terribly hilly and 
very tiring. Thus, I made the other day an uninter- 
rupted climb of ten kilometers. . . . This country 
is interesting for a son of the Huguenots and reminds 



42 ROGER ALLIER 

me of the Cevennes; for it is hereabout that the per- 
secuted Covenanters sought refuge. I was shown 
ravines and folds among the mountains where they 
used to hide and hold their meetings. 

I unfortunately have not the time to write you a long 
letter today, and I regret not being able to tell you 
more about the missionary meetings. I will give you 
the details by word of mouth. 

The name Summer School has seemed to me inexact. 
In reality, they do not study fixed missionary sub- 
jects. The gatherings at Moffat have an altogether 
different purpose. The people who come there are 
members of the study circles of which I spoke in my 
last letter. It is, therefore, absolutely useless to teach 
them what missions are, the more so as they are in gen- 
eral "leaders." It is, rather, an annual conference, 
which serves as a bond among the study groups scat- 
tered throughout the different churches. They there 
discuss the methods used, as well as the adaptations 
necessitated by the wide diversity, from the educational 
standpoint, represented in the groups to which they 
address themselves. 

But there is still another thing. The gatherings at 
Moffat are an instrumentality employed for the expan- 
sion of the mission study movement and the promotion 
of missionary enlistment. To that end are arranged 
the evening meetings, which are rather meetings of 
appeal to the young people than meetings of study. 
They were directed by well-known speakers and were 
to me the most interesting and valuable sessions. 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 43 

I returned from Moffat delighted with my sojourn. 
There was revealed to me a laymen's movement, of 
which I had not dreamed, and which is developing rap- 
idly in Scotland and even in England, despite the many 
difficulties and objections with which the study of 
missions has to contend in the churches. You will 
notice from the photograph that of the 310 persons 
present there were 250 women and only 60 men. 
That is so because the men, who are in the majority 
in the study groups, were not free to come in such large 
numbers. They are not all on vacation at the same 
time; there is a notable conflict in this regard between 
Glasgow and Edinburgh. 

Among the campers have I told you that I found a 
number of students from Oxford ? Among them was 
the one who used to take particularly good care of us 
at Balliol College.^ They recognized me as soon as I 
came, and we parted very good friends. They had just 
spent two weeks at the Baslow camp. 

You are curious to know how they study missions 
here. I have the impression that in the study circles 
they go into the subject very thoroughly. 

Here is how it is, in a few words. As one is deaHng 
with people who differ widely and represent different 
stages and types of general information, the "study 
books," like Mott's, have to be brought within the 
reach not only of the educated public but also of 



* It was at Balliol College, Oxford, that Roger stayed with 
his father in 1909. The young- man of whom he speaks has since 
gone to India as a missionary. 



44 ROGER ALLIER 

workingmen or peasants of town or country. The best 
definition that I can give you of these books for diffus- 
ing knowledge is that they are syllabi, offering a sort 
of outline or plan of study, themselves difficult for cer- 
tain ones, and for others too simple, requiring supple- 
mentation by the study of less general works. Thus 
at the same time the work is simplified and the most 
diverse needs are met. In the light of the discussions 
and conversations which I have heard, this method 
seems to me excellent. The results it is producing are 
encouraging. Very great interest is being aroused 
by the study of missions ; the end is being attained. 

I beg your pardon for expressing my thought so 
badly and so briefly. I hope that you understand what 
I mean. I do not know where my head is. Renee is 
practicing on the piano beside me and is making an 
infernal racket — the piano at Dairy is excellent, it has 
a very good tone, but for the moment I find it too 
much. 

I am trying to collect my thoughts and here are my 
impressions : 

1. Very great impetus has been given to the study of 
missions by the Edinburgh Conference. 

2. The interest of the Anglo-Saxon public seems 
concentrated on the Far East: "Half the human race 
is at a unique epoch of its history." There is the leit 
motiv. Materialistic industrialism, or religious devel- 
opment parallel to material prosperity; there is the 
alternative. It is, indeed, a poignant question for him 
who has heard the addresses of these days here. It 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 45 

seems to me already proved that on the fate of Chris- 
tianity in the Far East depends the fate of Christianity 
in the Occident. 

3. A very strong impression : no distinction between 
foreign missions and the evangeHzation of the coun- 
tries called "Christian." The appeal is as pressing 
for the one as for the other. But, in Europe, the pre- 
dominant interest is in social service. It is extremely 
intense in Scotland at this moment. I prefer to talk to 
you about this on my return. That which is certain is 
that economic orthodoxy is being more and more com- 
pletely abandoned in this country, which was repeat- 
edly pointed out to me in the course in Political 
Sciences as the model of social Darwinism put into 
practice. 

If it is still true that Adam Smith is better known 
in the churches than is the Sermon on the Mount, it 
is becoming less and less true ; and in increasing meas- 
ure ideas of brotherhood are taking the place of the 
comfortable old type of charity. If only one could 
print the address which a pastor from Glasgow deliv- 
ered before us last Thursday. It should be published 
in the Revue du Christianisme Social. Thanks to this 
minister, with whom I talked, I shall see many interest- 
ing things in Glasgow this month. 



This interest in social questions, which was becoming 
identified with his general interest in the Kingdom of 
God, accompanied him throughout the rest of his trip. At 
Glasgow and in all the large towns, he visited all the 



46 ROGER ALLIER 

social institutions to which he could gain admittance. 
Fortified by letters of introduction from Mr. E. de Boyve, 
one of the leaders of the cooperative movement in French 
industry, he made a first-hand study of the life of the 
great Scottish cooperative societies. He did not lose the 
opportunity to visit a number of the larger manufactur- 
ing plantts. 

His trips to Oxford, to Mansfield House, and to Scot- 
land prepared him to come to his father's aid, in an 
inquiry which the latter had undertaken for the "Social 
Museum" on "The Enthusiasm for Social Activity" in 
the Anglo-Saxon groups of the World's Student Christian 
Federation. He collaborated actively in this work, writ- 
ing letters in all directions, aiding in the task of making 
abstracts of the answers which came in and in the trans- 
lation of the documents which accumulated. This mem- 
orandum was not entirely completed when he had to de- 
part for his military service; but it was at the point at 
which editing becomes almost mechanical. In connection 
with this work he had come into touch with the Reverend 
Mr. Goodrich, pastor of the Berri Street Anglo-American 
Church, and had formed the habit of regular attendance 
upon the meetings of its Christian Endeavor Society. 

In June, 191 1, Roger crossed the Channel to be present 
at the celebration of the coronation of King George V. 

On his return from England, he set out with his family 
to spend the summer in the Italian Alps, in the heart 
of the Valley of Aosta, at Courmayeur. It was there, in 
the great windings of the Mont-Blanc range, from the 
"Aiguille du Geant" to the "Aiguille du Midi," on the 
Grandes-Jorasses, and in the pass of Tale f re, that his 
passion for mountains was developed and there that he 
received his vocation. He decided to discharge his mili- 
tary service with the chasseurs dlpins. He returned to 
Paris for some days, participated successfully in the com- 



ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND 47 

petitive examination to determine the award of the cer- 
tificates of military aptitude. He made this long and 
fatiguing journey in the midst of the torrid heat of an 
unusual summer. Almost ill in consequence, he was 
obliged during the tests to struggle against a fever which 
made the forced marches a torture : 



Paris, September 2, 191 1. 

. . . Everything was whirling about me. But 
I had determined to hold out to the end at any cost, 
whatever the effort that it might require. With stub- 
born resolution I dragged one foot after the other and 
slowly the kilometers and hectometers passed. It 
seemed years, centuries. Thus I struggled like a mad- 
man, bathed in sweat, for five hours, striving all this 
time to gain forcible control over my protesting stom- 
ach. Auto-suggestion was my ultimate salvation. At 
the end of twenty kilometers I felt much better and 
scarcely even tired ! I put forth such an effort that I 
made the last four kilometers like a freshly stoked 
engine. It is no exaggeration to say that never before 
in my life had I expended such an amount of energy 
and pertinacity. In desperate circumstances, when 
one must win at any cost, even to dropping in one's 
tracks, one is astonished to discover in himself un- 
dreamed of reserves of strength. 

His effort was rewarded. The rank which he received 
permitted him to choose one of the two places in the Alps 
assigned to the recruits from Paris : one at Embrun, the 
other at Albertville. He chose the one at Albertville. 



IV 

ALBERTVILLE 
(October, 191 1 -September, 1912) 

Entrance into the Twenty-second Battalion of Chas- 
seurs — Pastor Chatelain — On guard at the penitentiary — 
In the platoon of the student non-commissioned officers 
— Captain Boutle — Corporal. 



IV 

ALBERTVILLE 

The seventh of October, 191 1, Roger arrives at Albert- 
ville. The surrounding heights shine with fresh snow ; 
he needs nothing more to fill him, as he writes, "with 
madcap joy." The other "blues," in whom this sight 
awakens fewer memories and arouses fewer hopes, are 
strangers to this joy, while he understands nothing of the 
bewilderment which muddles them. He is immensely 
amused by all that he is made to do — a dictation, a page 
of writing, four problems in arithmetic — and especially 
by the difficulty which they have in equipping him, all 
the uniforms threatening to be too tight and too short. 
The initiation, involving the tasks of dishwashing and the 
peeling of vegetables, seems to him rather jolly. Above 
all, he applies himself at once to getting on good terms 
with his new companions. To break the ice, he sets on 
foot a few harmless pranks and is not long in becoming 
the friend of all. 

Albertville, October 14, 191 1. 

My roommates are much less disagreeable than I 
thought. There are among them some with whom one 
can talk seriously: an instructor, a normal school stu- 
dent, a railway employe, and others. There is an ex- 
traordinary mixture of professions in the barracks. 
I have lent them a novel and they have read the little 

51 



52 ROGER ALLIER 

brochure "Souviens-toi," addressed to young Chris- 
tians under the flag.^ They have asked me many 
questions. 

Two of them asked me to explain to them the map 
of the General Staff. We are all excellent friends, 
old-timers and raw recruits. The old boys tell us of 
the cold of the winter, when there is a meter of snow 
on the parade ground and one's gun freezes his hands ; 
they tell us of maneuvers, of the passage by the alpins 
over the saddles of Bonhomme, the "Croix du Bon- 
homme" and the "Fours" ; of the reconnaissance at 
the pass of the "Seigne" ; of the descent in Maurienne 
by the valley of Mottets and of Chapieux. . . . 

Some weeks later (November 19) he wrote to his 
pastor, Mr. Elie Bonnet, who had just sent him another 
pamphlet : 

"The Book of Prayers of the French Soldier" has 
become very precious to me. In fact, I used to know 
it and on leaving Paris, I had carried away with me six 
copies, to be able to distribute them, if opportunity 
came, to my comrades. 

An officer of great merit, Lieutenant Hienri Krug,^ on 



^ Published by the National Committee of Young Men's Chris- 
tion Associations. 

^ Received at the War School March 18, 1914. Named captain 
of the gth Battalion of Chasseurs, March 25, 1914. August i, 
1914, given charge of the command of the 9th Company of the 
49th Battalion of Chasseurs. Fell August 30, 1914, near Ecordal 
(Ardennes). Cited in the Army Order: "An officer full of spirit, 



ALBERTVILLE 53 

the recommendation of Commandant de Cazenove, gave 
him a cordial welcome in his home and, recognizing in 
him the determination to become an excellent soldier, did 
not hesitate to give most valuable advice. 

Mr. Allard, a young postal employe with whom he had 
become acquainted, had introduced him without delay 
to the Methodist minister of Albertville, Mr. Chatelain, 
who felt for him at once a fatherly love. Roger had to 
take his final examinations for his doctor's degree the 
last of October. In the moments when he would perhaps 
have wished to rest, he had to bury himself in his law 
books : 

Albertville, October 18, 191 1. 

Since the evening of day before yesterday, I have 
devoted myself incessantly to the review of my course. 
It is due especially to Mr. Chatelain that I can do this. 
Knowing that I had no room in town and that I had 
to review my work for the examination in a quiet place, 
he has insisted that I go every evening on leaving the 
barracks and install myself with my books in his study. 
He has me stay at his house all evening, and has pre- 
sented me to his whole band of children, who are wild 
in their admiration of the alpins and have examined 
every stitch of my uniform. This inspection embar- 
rasses me more than that of the sergeant of the guard, 
for this one seems to me more searching. After fam- 
ily worship, I return to the barracks, light of heart, 

energy, and bravery, seriously wounded while facing a numeri- 
cally superior enemy; in order to intensify the courage of his 
company fell crying to his chasseurs : 'Courage, my friends. 
Long Live France !' " 



54 ROGER ALLIER 

at last feeling less isolated in this gap of the 
Alps. ... At the barracks one is in the midst of 
a crowd, in constant touch with other men and yet 
nowhere could one feel more isolated. 

In the letter mentioned above, to Mr. Elie Bonnet, he 
wrote : 

I have the good fortune of feeling less isolated than 
I feared. Albertville is a little "gap" in the mountains, 
already buried in snow, it is true. But that does not 
prevent me from finding friends. The Methodist min- 
ister, Mr. Chatelain, has received me with the greatest 
kindness. For two years he has been preaching the 
Gospel in Savoy. He has helped with the work of 
the Gospel Wagon of which you have surely heard. 
I have found in his house the comfort and encourage- 
ment of which a Christian soldier has the greatest 
need, far away from his family and in the midst of 
temptations of all sorts in the barracks. 

On October 26th he appeared in Paris. He stayed 
there three days, passed with success his final examina- 
tion for the doctor's degree, and returned to Albertville. 
His chiefs now knew that he was freed from a care that 
they had respected. They had decided to make of him 
an officer of the reserve. Captain Boutle, who com- 
manded his company, the Fourth, warned him that he 
would not "let him off easy." This was, moreover, his 
personal wish. But he was going to experience what is 
expected of those to whom such a promise has been made: 



ALBERTVILLE 55 

Albert ville, November 6, 191 1. 

In this connection the sergeant told me not to be 
too much frightened, if they made me go on guard 
duty very often during the next week. It was an honor 
which they were showing me — in other words, they 
were trying to gild the pill for me — and besides that, it 
would permit me sooner to become a corporal. Like 
the "old timers," we leave to make an eight days' 
maneuver in the mountains. It may be that I shall be 
on guard duty every two or three nights. The solemn 
thing about it is that for the first time, simple chasseur 
that I am, I have an absolute power of life or death 
over other men; it is my duty, under pain of going 
before a court martial, to fire on any man who ap- 
proaches without giving me the password, or to run 
him through with my bayonet. 



Albertville, November 8, 191 1. 

. . . I was on guard from Sunday night to 
Monday; then again Tuesday night to Wednesday 
. and I am to go still again Thursday night 
to Friday! ... It was, I believe, thanks to the 
howling gale that I did not go to sleep from the cold. 
The cutting north wind which whistles in the valley 
of Arly comes right down from the glaciers of Mont 
Blanc; each day the cold becomes more sharp. Our 
guns freeze our hands. One no longer is conscious 
of his feet; he fears he has dropped his weapon, but 



S6 ROGER ALLIER 

finds his fingers are so stiff that the hand no longer 
is separated from the gun. Tomorrow at half -past 
eleven I take up sentry duty again outside the guard- 
house. 

Albertville, November 12, 191 1. 

At last! The cape is rounded. I got out of the 
affair as I wished, that is to say without punishment 
or a cold. Not even my good looks have been im- 
paired. That does not mean that the weather favored 
me. The night of Thursday to Friday was freez- 
ing. Since last Monday's snowfall the grey 
clouds had not ceased to accumulate. The approach 
of winter was unmistakable. From three o'clock 
in the afternoon there was a veritable tempest. I was 
at that time in a corner of a narrow passage formed by 
the two walls of the penitentiary, six meters in height. 
Picture to yourself the wall of the prison of Sante. I 
was there absolutely alone with fixed bayonet, pacing 
those dark rounds where my steps reechoed in the 
silence. The nearest sentinel was two or three hundred 
meters away. I saw nothing save a corner of the sky, 
and on each side, extending for thirty paces, the wall, 
which at this point makes an angle. This curve in 
the rounds necessitated my taking with almost constant 
repetition the hundred paces necessary in order to 
cover the wall in both directions. 

It is useless to tell you that this is somewhat monot- 
onous, and' very tiring. By four o'clock in the after- 
noon it is nearly dark, and this watching every min- 



ALBERTVILLE 57 

ute exacts a great nervous tension. Often one hears 
the sound of steps. It is necessary constantly to strain 
the ear. From time to time, officers or non-commis- 
sioned officers make the rounds to assure themselves 
that no sentinel has yielded to sleep. They come up 
in the darkness, accompanied by a lantern-bearer, and 
it is necessary, under pain of being punished, to stop 
them at a distance with the usual challenge. One 
orders the lantern-bearer to stop and permits the offi- 
cer to approach, alone, up to the point of the bayonet, 
and give in a low voice the "word." If he gives it, 
one permits him to pass, saluting him and reporting 
to him the alarms which one may have had. How 
many times in the night I rushed to the turn of the 
rounds, thinking I heard steps! It was only my own 
echo. 

During the long hours which I thus passed, a cold 
rain fell without cessation. Happily, at the end of two 
hours, one is relieved by a comrade to whom one gives 
the orders, the "password," and the cartridges. One 
then enters the well-warmed guard room, and, all 
dressed and equipped, ready at the least warning, one 
stretches oneself on the straw under thick coverings. 
How hard it is to be soon awakened by the officer of 
the guard to go, from two to four in the morning, for 
example, in the wind, the rain, and the darkness, to 
take up again the same place between the two walls! 
I do not know whether one would have the courage to 
obey if one did not think of the comrade who is freez- 
ing out there in the puddles of ic}^ water. While it 



58 ROGER ALLIER 

was raining thus, the snow was descending lower and 
lower on the mountains which overlook Albertville. 
It has reached the forts which protect the valley. Be- 
fore long we shall see it on the borders of Arly. It 
will be hard then to do guard duty! 

Being in the penitentiary in the night from Thurs- 
day to Friday, I made a visit which interested me very 
much, but which left a deep impression of sadness. 
Accompanied by an officer of the penitentiary armed 
with a revolver, and another chasseur armed like 
myself with his bayonet, I made during one whole 
hour the night round of the interior of the fortress. 
-We passed through a veritable maze of stairways and 
little passages, opening enormous iron doors and thick 
grillings, examining in passing the locks of the hun- 
dreds of little doors which, at the right and the left, 
lead to the cells. I was carrying a lantern, my com- 
rade was holding a great ring of keys. We pried into 
the smallest corners looking for a possible lurker be- 
hind the doors, under the stairways, in the piles of 
wood, straw, or cloth, under the tables of the work- 
shops, and even in the water of a watering trough! 

At last we descended by a dark staircase to the 
underground cells, where are confined the "punished," 
the most dangerous of the prisoners. There, we were 
not content with examining the locks. We went, revol- 
ver in hand, into each successive cell, to make sure of 
the presence of each inmate. It is impossible to imag- 
ine a more heart-rending sight. In the dungeons 
change of air is almost impossible. But little light 



ALBERTVILLE 59 

filters through. The odor is sickening. The wretches 
who vegetate here, true waste of humanity, are of a 
deathly pallor. It pains one's heart to see the looks of 
hatred which they cast at us when we enter. One 
divines in these looks a frightful accumulation of 
moral and physical suffering. You would have to see 
it in order to understand and feel it. What a sorry 
fashion of reforming the guilty is that of burying 
them thus alive ! The thought of it is enough to keep 
one awake nights. 

Since that evening you have no idea how much I 
admire men like Mr. Chatelain who have the courage 
to penetrate into this place of degradation and despair 
to take to it the gospel message. It is an heroic and 
almost mad task, that of daring to speak to such 
beings of love of one's neighbor, of pity, of redemp- 
tion, and of life eternal. It is necessary to have the 
faith which moves mountains to believe that such 
beings have souls and to try to raise them again and 
to convert them. I shall not soon forget my rounds 
by night in the penitentiary. 

The intensity of the experiences which he was having 
at Albertville did not make him lose sight of what was 
going on in Paris. He wished to know what progress his 
father was making in his various occupations, what recep- 
tion the members of the School of Higher Social Studies 
had given to an address on "What the Protestant 
Churches have to gain from the Separation," and what 
changes were taking place in the spiritual orientation of 
the Student Association. But if he followed all these 



6o ROGER ALLIER 

things closely, he did not become lost in regret that he 
was far away from them. He was whole-heartedly 
devoted to his military duty and applied himself especially 
— for him a means of bearing its hardships — to dis- 
tinguishing what constituted its moral distinctiveness. 



November 19, 191 1. 

I thank you for having attached to your letter the 
monthly program of the Circle. I should be glad to 
receive it in the future, in order not to lose all contact 
with the life of the Association, The leading article 
by Kuntz is most clean-cut. It declares clearly what 
the Association Is and what it wishes to remain. There 
is a good beginning for the year. . . . The reli- 
gious study prospectus gives the promise of enthusiastic 
work, as does also that of the lyceums. Mr. Chatelain 
is about to organize a little Christian Association here. 
If I can render any assistance, I shall do so. 

Lieutenant Audibert is the man who occupies him- 
self especially with us ; I am in daily contact with him, 
for he follows closely the instruction of the student- 
corporals, and especially that of the two or three future 
officers of the reserve. 

Like nearly all the officers of the alpins, he is an 
athlete and makes us feel it. His commands are short 
and crisp and he puts us under an intensive physical 
training. You should see him placing himself at the 
head of our platoon for field work. He makes us 
climb, for example, in the direction of one of our forts 
in order to give us practical instruction, on a typical 



ALBERTVILLE 6i 

terrain, in the work of scouts or of sentinels in time 
of war. He commands us to make rapid evolutions 
and holds us ceaselessly in action. He makes us worm 
our way along under cover of walls or hedges, seek 
out sunken roads, scale high walls several men abreast, 
explore ravines, walk single file along the most im- 
passable paths, or surround a farm to see that the 
enemy are not hiding there. 

Then we see our lieutenant scramble down a slope 
with an athletic step. One has to follow him with 
sack on one's back and weapon in the strap, until one 
is steeped in sweat. Suddenly, at a blow of the whistle, 
he warns us that he had seen the enemy ; it is necessary 
to throw oneself flat on the ground, face close to the 
earth, in grass, in water, or in mud. Sharply, he gives 
us the order to surround a wood; we advance two by 
two, crawling in the meadows and hiding ourselves 
in ditches or behind bushes. Then there is a new rush 
at quick step; he is tireless. There is nothing to add 
except that these exercises are varied ad infinitum. 

If Mr. Schulz^ has praised to you the discipline and 
the military spirit of the alpins he was not wrong. Even 
when we are utterly exhausted, we are compelled to put 
into our movements an energy, a firmness, a precision, 

^ Charles Schuiz, who had been a student at the School of 
Protestant Theology of the University of Geneva and who had 
passed some months at that of Paris, had done his military 
service in the Alpine Infantry. Joined the 42nd Regiment of 
Infantry in August, 1914, was given charge of the instruction of 
the volunteers. But he demanded energetically to go to the front, 
not wishing to continue to send his young soldiers under fire and 
stay himself far away from peril. He left his station the first 



62 ROGER ALLIER 

which are astonishing. It is necessary at any cost that 
we show ourselves superior to the other companies; 
our captain told us so the other day. He had formed 
us in a square, as he does often after exercise, to 
address words of encouragement to us. He promised 
a leave of absence to any one who chances to wound 
himself in the hand as a result of alacrit)'^ in handling 
his weapon, or in the foot while making his heels click 
one against the other. "You are chasseurs. A chas- 
seur ought to know how to present himself and adopt 
a natural, proud posture." 

That is not all. The companies are pitted one against 
the other, and then in turn the sections of each com- 
pany. Whether it is a question of climbing the rope, 
doing gymnastics, of marching, of pulling the rope, 
section against section, or of making either one's room 
or the buttons of one's uniform shine, this rivalry pro- 
duces astonishing results. You should see the pride 
which the chiefs take in the sections which they com- 
mand, the changes in their expression when the victory 
leans from one side to the other, and the cries of 
encouragement which they address to their men. This 
perpetual rivalry, which is one of the salient traits of 
our battalion, is carried even to the point of being 
sometimes comical. 



of September, 1914, rejoining his regiment on the fifth, near 
Paris, and entered the 6th Battalion on the morning of the sixth. 
The same day he was killed. In front of him a group of Germans 
suddenly raised their arms in the air crying: "Comrades! Com- 
rades ! We are Alsatians ! We surrender." Incapable of sus- 
pecting a trap, Schulz advanced and was shot point-blank. 



ALBERTVILLE 63 

Another important trait of which I have never 
spoken is the severity with which our chiefs fight alco- 
holism, and the excellent deportment of the chasseurs 
from this point of view. Lieutenant Audibert long 
ago gave us a talk on alcoholism. Soon, in the course 
of the winter, the surgeon will give us some real ad- 
dresses on the subject. I think I have said in passing 
that the canteen does not sell a drop of alcohol. The 
chasseurs who return from leave are obliged, on enter- 
ing the quarters, to show all their pockets, and are per- 
mitted to bring in no alcoholic drink. You have 
traveled enough to know how easily, on the train, sol- 
diers on leave permit themselves to be led along by 
their comrades. 

Drunkenness is severely punished by terms of im- 
prisonment. A case presented itself last Saturday; 
our captain gave us a talk on this subject. He pun- 
ished a corporal who, being in a cafe and seeing that 
the young chasseur in question was going to become 
intoxicated, had neglected to stop him. 

In the evening in the streets of Albertville, one 
never sees a drunken chasseur ; all is quiet. Mr. Chate- 
lain, with whom I dined day before yesterday, told me 
that the chasseurs had raised the opinion that he used 
to have of soldiers. 



It must be recognized that if such results are obtained, 
it is not due to an automatic and impersonal discipline. 
The relations of the Alpine officers with their men are 
of a quite special nature. These relations do not at all 



64 ROGER ALLIER 

conform with the ideas which the young Christian 
brought to the barracks ; there are times when he is almost 
surprised and bewildered by them : 



Albertville, November 28, 191 1. 

Every Wednesday and often on Saturday I spend 
a very agreeable afternoon at football. The team has 
been formed for about a fortnight. We play with the 
officers and the non-commissioned officers. At first 
one feels a queer sensation when catching his lieuten- 
ant by the feet and throwing him to the ground. But 
it is the game and one becomes accustomed to it. 

All is not, however, so picturesque and gay in the 
service. The platoon of the student non-commissioned 
officers leads a life that can without exaggeration be 
described as infernal. The sergeant who commands it is 
a brave fellow, very much impressed with his responsi- 
bility, his heart set on making excellent non-commissioned 
officers, convinced that he is acting only in the interest 
of those whom he maltreats. Excellent sentiments, ab- 
surd prejudices, narrow ideas, and immature conceptions 
are strangely combined in his very simple mind. He feels 
that he has before him the most intelligent individuals 
of the company, and he figures to himself that, for this 
reason, they need to be broken. Thus he redoubles his 
violence, insults, and punishments. He invents all kinds 
of physical strains. Finally he carries things so far that 
the captain is forced to take notice of it, intervenes, and 
orders the sergeant to manage the chasseurs better, 
"after addressing to us," writes Roger, "one of those en- 
couraging paternal talks of which he has the secret and 



ALBERTVILLE 65 

which cannot fail to build up the morale of the men at 
the psychological moment." If he suffers — and he admits 
this confidentially to his father — he notes with care the 
progress which is the reward of this suffering. 



''Two days ago (December 17th) we even did one- 
half hour of double time, ten minutes of this with knap- 
sack on back and rifle on shoulder. Yesterday, we did 
five hours of marching with, theoretically, seventeen 
kilos on our shoulders. We were carrying in reality 
tv^^ice that load, for we were constantly in a veritable 
tempest of snow mixed with rain." 

At Christmas, he has several days' leave which he 
passes in Paris. Returning to Albertville, he devotes him- 
self again to the mastery of the technique of a service in 
which he is becoming more and more absorbed. But he 
has the joy of discovering that he escapes a peril which 
he has secretly feared : "At no moment since my return 
from Paris, have I suffered from that horrible home- 
sickness which often gnaws those who have seen their 
families again." 

The thing that visibly strengthens him is that he feels 
himself esteemed by his superiors ; he has the impression 
that they are making note of the application which he has 
shown during the three months. 

We have from the chiefs the recital of a little deed 
which shows very well with what faithfulness he worked. 
To accustom themselves to carrying their heavy knap- 
sacks on marches, the chasseurs had to put in them a 
certain number of cast-iron rings; the number of these 
rings is increased day by day. One time, the officer who 
was leading the detachment in a night maneuver, Lieu- 



66 ROGER ALLIER 

tenant Krug, unexpectedly undertook the inspection of 
the knapsacks to see if each one contained the full num- 
ber of rings. On opening Roger's he found that the 
number has been increased. He could only say: "You 
are stuffing the corners with them." 



I do not wish to speak of the officers, who have 
confidence in me, or especially of the captain, who treats 
me in the most fatherly fashion. The non-commis- 
sioned officers themselves, from the adjutant of the 
company even to the terrible Ch., gave me, on my 
return, a welcome which astonished me. Nothing 
more than the way in which they said, "Good day, 
Allier!" and in which they shook my hand — a rare 
thing — put a balm in my heart. That proves that 
Ch. (you know whom I mean) comes to be grateful 
to you for persevering effort. He has lost nothing of 
his violence and remains true to his method : that of 
driving the men to the limit of their endurance. But 
to my thinking, all is changed. More than once, after 
roll call in the evening, he has detained me in his room 
to talk, or to seek the answers to a course which is in- 
teresting him. His stories of the Alpine maneuvers or 
expeditions on ski, for he is a good ski-runner and 
went to the school of skiing at Modane, are quite 
funny. He seasons these with many mistakes in his 
French and with a frontier accent which greatly 
amuses me. At times, when he is excited, he calls 
me "Old chap," and at that I can hardly keep a straight 
face. 



ALBERTVILLE 67 

The snow is becoming deeper, the marches, varied by 
picturesque shoveling contests, are more and more 
pleasant — for him who is resolved to take everything in 
good part. Roger is initiated into the charms of travel 
on ski, or rather — to begin with — the charms of tumbles, 
head first, into deep snow-drifts. But a hard test awaits 
him. In the second fortnight of January, he is taken with 
a bad attack of jaundice. In vain he resists this illness; 
it is too strong for him. He is obliged to enter a hospital, 
to be ably cared for there by Dr. Romieu, for whom he 
forms an affection. He is furious at the thought that 
this illness will deprive him of taking part in the winter 
marches, in view of which he has been training for so 
long a time. 

He is forced also to give up taking the examinations, 
success in which would make him a corporal. All this 
greatly vexes him, but does not retard his convalescence. 
He is given leave of absence to recover at home. Febru- 
ary 4th he reaches Paris, to spend two weeks. But a 
great disappointment awaits him there. When he is not 
thinking of his jaundice, he has a relapse which forces 
him to take to his bed. The days pass. The time for 
departure arrives. Certainly, he would have no trouble 
in obtaining, on the report of his physician, an extension 
of his leave. But that idea is intolerable to him. After 
all he has done to win the esteem of his superiors, to 
expose himself to the suspicion of exploiting a little 
illness ! He is resolved to return. He consents only to 
his father's writing to Captain Boutle to tell him exactly 
how things are. He returns to Albertville February 
i8th. Naturally, he is obliged to go again to the hospital. 
But at least he has shown his good will. 

He quickly discovers that everyone has appreciated it. 
The captain advises him to occupy his long leisure hours 
in preparing for his examination and from time to time 



68 ROGER ALLIER 

to participate, without getting too tired, in the exercises 
of the student-corporals on the embankment. "There is," 
writes Roger, "a mark of confidence that is really signifi- 
cant. I must now show myself worthy of it." He applies 
himself with fervor to what seems to him a very sweet 
duty of gratitude. He passes his examination, and is 
officially advised that he is admitted, but that he will 
receive his appointment only after resuming his full 
duties. His captain does not hide from him the attach- 
ment which he feels for him and in this connection makes 
him a very amusing revelation of the sentiments with 
which he had received word of the arrival of the "lawyer" 
in the battalion: 

March 4, 19 12. 

Last night I had a talk with Captain Boutle. Not 
having received the order for this morning's march 
and not knowing what to do, I went to him at his 
house, after asking the advice of my sergeant-major. 
Naturally, I was let in at the rear and waited in the 
kitchen; they did not ask for my name. He received 
me in his study, where he was taking coffee with Mrs. 
Boutle and his two daughters. His reception was 
more affectionate than ever. He prefers that I receive 
my stripes a little later, in order that my health may 
become as robust as before. He is putting me off, 
therefore, until after the second series of test marches 
which are to take place in about ten days. HI march 
tomorrow or the day after, it is only officially to get 
into training again. . . . 

"I am most eager," added he, "that you be made cor- 
poral, and that should be only a beginning. I have 



ALBERTVILLE 69 

serious reasons for this. There are chasseurs and 
chasseurs. You are a thinker. Well, you do not 
imagine, young man, what a big part you can play in 
my company. An educated young man, who is devoted 
to his lot as an alpin, who offers his comrades an 
example of enthusiasm — such a young man has a very 
great influence. Young men of your type can be a 
very dangerous leaven of demoralization. They are 
so strong in demanding special favors, in giving an 
example of discontent, in disparaging everything, that 
they end by communicating their distaste to their less 
educated comrades. When you came to Albertville, I 
had absolutely made up my mind to saber you if you 
were that sort. We do not need those people in the 
alpins. We are an endurance corps, a picked body of 
troops. And, on my word, the service is hard. It is 
necessary to keep working at it every day, continually. 
It is necessary that they tire you out even up to this sum- 
mer, in order that you shall come to be able to 'climb the 
Alps' without feeling it. Well, one gets there only with 
good humor. You, my boy, you are an enthusiast. 
You are a fanatic on the subject of mountains. I saw 
that, this winter, when we crossed the saddle of the 
'Fontanelles.' (That was one of our marches in the 
snow in December. The mess-steward's mules were 
trying to sit down and the chasseurs who were going 
ahead and breaking the paths were obliged to relieve 
one another every ten minutes.) You sweated on this 
climb, when you were marching ahead with Ch., 
but it was easy to see that you were a fanatic. That 



70 ROGER ALLIER 

gave me pleasure. . . . That is why I insist on hav- 
ing you as a corporal of my company. I shall insist 
to the colonel that he assign you to the Fourth as 
supernumerary; for there is no squad unclaimed. You 
are a fellow who pleases me. It would have been so 
easy for you, if you had wished, to get a good long 
leave and stay three weeks or a month longer with 
your family while convalescing. You returned to Al- 
bertville. I shall treat you with all possible kindness. 
What you did in that case was very game. It shows 
the makings of a good chasseur. Go on, my boy, con- 
tinue to do your small task conscientiously." . . . 
While he was saying all this to me, my fatherly cap- 
tain led me right out to the road. And so, there was 
I seized with a new interest and zeal. 

March 5th, he resumes his life as a chasseur alpin. He 
tests himself in a march, and comes out of it without too 
much fatigue. On the morrow he takes part in another, 
this time with full equipment. It is a fantastic march, 
through mud black as coffee, under a driving rain that 
transforms each cap into a dripping gutter. The test is 
hard, but it reestablishes him in that atmosphere of self- 
esteem and pride which helps to conquer every obstacle : 

Albertville, March 8, 19 12. 

Suddenly, at a turn of the road — it was on the 
way back — whom do we see, perched on a rock above 
our heads, but the colonel . . . who has come to meet 
us and who watches us pass, calling out all sorts of 



ALBERTVILLE 71 

things to encourage us. It was needless. There were 
many of the men who had bloody feet, but not for 
the world would they have put their knapsacks on the 
mules. To give in — what a humiliation ! One has to 
see the marches to understand the miracles of endur- 
ance which self-esteem can accomplish. With what 
care they have made note of those in the other com- 
panies who have given in. I noticed in this connection 
a very amusing scene, when we set out from Villard. 
The Sixth Company was to be at the head on the return 
as at the start, and the rest of the battalion was to 
march in the same order. I was, that day, away at the 
rear with the Fourth. We had stacked our arms in a 
pasture, and we saw all the other companies of the bat- 
talion pass by us. You should hear the jibes which the 
companies hurled at each other : "Oh, how thin they 
have become! How pale the Fifth is! There is the 
Third drinking; how lean they are!" etc., etc. 

It is not only rivalry that makes them bear without 
too much pain these cruel marches in the snow; it is 
also the spirit of merriment which never ceases to 
reign, right up to the end. On the edge of the road 
we met a donkey harnessed to a cart. The Sixth 
Company began to bray all together. The donkey, nat- 
urally, began to reply. And this interchange was kept 
up until the whole battalion had passed, calling, "Hee, 
haw! Hee, haw!" 



Roger has recovered from his illness. He has become 
again the young chasseur to his liking. The maneuvers 



72 ROGER ALLIER 

multiply. The second series of "test marches," more 
tiring than the first, is passed. "I did all that," he writes 
March 17th, "with the greatest ease, and all the training 
I had received in the platoon quickly came back to me." 
He is definitely promoted corporal, and wears his stripes ; 
he receives, besides, a ski-staff, a cord, a folding lantern, 
and field glasses. In practice maneuvers with both sides 
represented he begins his new duties attached to the 
Eleventh Battalion in the region of the saddle of Tamie 
and around Annecy Lake. And this first period of his 
life as a chasseur ends with an eight days' leave which 
he comes to spend in Paris, at Easter time. 



ALBERTVILLE 

(continued) 

(October, igii-September, 1912) 

Interests — Madagascar — The separation of Church and 
State — Evangelization in Savoy — The aspirants' platoon 
— Marches in the mountains — At Chapieux — Maneuvers 
in Haute Maurienne and in Dauphine — Maneuvers in the 
West. 



V 
ALBERTVILLE (Continued) 

From Roger's letters, from the intensity of his absorp- 
tion in all the details of his service, and from the testi- 
mony of all his superiors as to his progress during these 
first six months of life as an alpin, one would naturally 
think that no other interest could have a place in so full 
an existence. Yet he used to find time to interest himself 
in many other things and even to relate himself to them 
vitally. We do not refer to the life of his family only. 
There is not a detail of what goes on in Raspail Boule- 
vard of which he does not wish to know. In spite of the 
separation, he takes part — his letters speak of it con- 
stantly — in everything his people are doing, his parents, 
his sisters, his brother. To each he writes very regularly, 
interesting himself in the graduation of the oldest of his 
sisters, Renee ; filling his letters to the youngest, Idelette, 
with railleries; relating to his brother Jack unpubhshed 
stories of locomotives or of races on the glaciers. He 
forgets none of the things to which he used to devote him- 
self in Paris. The activities of the Association of Protes- 
tant Students in the Latin Quarter are a subject to which 
he loves to revert in his epistolary conversations with his 
father. Each time that a furlough or a visit provides the 
opportunity, he asks him eagerly about the nature of the 
meetings which are being held, their success, and the 
themes of the addresses. 

One question which pursues him is that of the freedom 
of conscience in Madagascar. The political agent who 

75 



76 ROGER ALLIER 

had jeopardized this freedom had been replaced, at the 
head of the colony, by an officer of undoubted honesty 
and justice, but opposed from below by some subalterns 
who intended to continue the practices of his predecessor. 
Roger was following all these events with passionate 
attention. Would a ministerial crisis develop? He 
wanted, as quickly as possible, information on the moral 
worth and the probable intentions of the new minister of 
the colonies. At a certain moment, negotiations were 
entered upon which ended in the promulgation of a decree 
on the various forms of worship. The preparation of 
this projected charter took a long time; it was laborious. 
Roger wished to be kept in constant touch with its prog- 
ress. He felt real anxiety over it and plied his father 
with questions : 

Albertville, January 22, 19 12. 

If you succeed with Mr. X in formulating a 

decree, I should like to know at least the main outlines 
of it and I hope that you will have the time to sketch 
them for me. I ask myself if, with the present freedom 
of action, you will not be obliged to make too great 
concessions to the discretionary power of the adminis- 
tration. Is not the latter going to enter a vigorous 
protest? To inaugurate a true rule of freedom of 
worship, you will be led perforce to limit an arbitrary 
power jealously cherished quite apart from all anti- 
religious passion. The French administration has 
an instinctive tendency to distrust all liberties pro- 
tected simply by pledges. Mr. de Toqueville would 
say that that has not changed since the old order of 
things. It will always be necessary to fear the in- 



ALBERTVILLE 77 

fringements of officers who are over-zealous or new 
to authority. But if you are obliged to yield to the 
passage of a law, even a very strict one, at least it 
will provide a text. It will no longer be the rule of 
the good or the wicked tyrant. 

He kept especially close watch of the religious work 
which was being accomplished at Albertville and in the 
neighborhood, and as much as he could, he devoted him- 
self to this. Hie was a faithful attendant upon the evan- 
gelical religious services which were held in a modest 
chapel, but he interested himself also in everything that 
was being done outside of these general meetings: 

Albertville, November 28, 191 1. 

You must pardon the haste with which I write you 
this evening. Perhaps you are astonished that I did 
not do so at leisure Sunday, according to my usual 
custom. It is because I was busy from morning until 
evening, from the hour of worship up to my return to 
the barracks. . . . We have just received a visit 
from Mr. Ernest Favre, who came from Geneva in 
an automobile. Saturday evening, in the auditorium 
of Mr. Chatelain's church, he gave a talk which drew 
many people. Some years before he had spoken in a 
tent at Albertville, and afterward had traveled through 
Savoy. He was accompanied by Pastor Lombard, 
who also gave a talk. In the afternoon of the next day 
we took a fine automobile trip along the mountain- 
side to get to Notre-Dame des Millieres, where Mr. 



78 ROGER ALLIER 

Chatelain has a hall. Mr. Favre held two meetings 
there, one at two-thirty and the other at seven in 
the evening, which drew big crowds of peasants. He 
was very eloquent and made, I think, a deep and last- 
ing impression. . , . These meetings, together 
with the very sympathetic welcome which I always 
receive at Mr. Chatelain's, did me much good and have 
helped me through a week of extremely hard work. 

The people among whom this effort of evangelization 
is made interest him keenly. He would like to penetrate 
what is going on in their minds, to understand what is 
passing in these oft-times threadbare souls, to plan what 
he should say to them and the manner in which to say it. 
This takes time, but he devotes himself to it constantly. 
He writes about it to his father, who is coming with his 
mother and his eldest sister to spend several days at 
Albertville, Mr. Chatelain having invited him to preside 
at a Sunday service: 

January 29, 19 12. 

After a stay of two months in Savoy, I knew little 
more about it than you. I am beginning to under- 
stand better the degree of development of these people. 
What they need is very simple, practical preaching, 
exactly like that which you used so successfully at 
Courmayeur. The social and ecclesiastical environment 
are the same and the difficulties and temptations which 
result from it the same as in the valley of Aosta. That 
would not prevent the choice of subjects other than 
those which you used to take at Courmayeur, mission- 



ALBERTVILLE 79 

ary subjects for example. But as education along mis- 
sionary lines does not yet exist in this little nucleus 
of converts, and as their horizon is still very limited, 
you would be obliged to appeal especially to their imag- 
ination. It would be necessary to make large use of 
anecdotes and to call into play a little psychology, ex- 
actly as is done when one speaks of missions before 
Sunday school children. In short, I believe that they 
are not ripe for the subject of missions. It would 
be better to talk to these people of Savoy of their con- 
version. There are many of them who, thanks to 
their personal experience, will understand you very 
well. You will make their tears flow, for here, as in 
the valley of Aosta, the influence of the Church is such 
that true dramas take place in many families. 



He learns to know all these good people by mingling 
much with them. But he does not study them after the 
manner of a dilettante, curious to note soul phenomena. 
He is especially eager to "serve" them : 



Albertville, January 7, 19 12. 

My Sunday, as you surmised, was very full. After 
worship the Chatelains insisted that I lunch with them. 
They relighted their Christmas tree for me. Then I 
worked at the preparations for a church supper, at 
which Mr. Chatelain's parishioners were going to as- 
semble in the hall that evening. This original meal, 
interrupted by songs, and followed by short speeches 



8o ROGER ALLIER 

and recitations by the children, was very successful. 
The work of decorating the room took me right up to 
the end of the afternoon. 



This evangeHstic work is not Hmited to the immediate 
neighborhood of Albertville. He follows it in its rami- 
fications : 

May 19, 1912. 

Last Thursday, Ascension Day, I went to Bourg- 
neuf, near Chamousset, where the tent is installed. 
I have not yet told you under what circumstances Mr. 
Chatelain decided to open a campaign in this locality. 
He was invited by the inhabitants of Bourgneuf, by the 
mayor himself. Seeing that the population seriously 
desired to know the Gospel, he had the tent transported 
to Bourgneuf, where he will stay until the end of June. 
The meetings have succeeded very well. Last Thurs- 
day the tent was packed. The people are attentive and 
sing with a vim. I am looking forward to Mr. Ernest 
Favre's arrival. . . . 

Whitsuntide is almost here; will there be any stu- 
dent gatherings at Les Ombrages? 

This mission to Bourgneuf grips his heart and he 
wishes to follow its progress closely: 

Albertville, June 3, 191 2. 

I set out early for Bourgneuf and spent the day 
there, returning at nine in the evening, on my bicycle. 



ALBERTVILLE 8i 

The meetings in the tent are always large and enthusi- 
astic; they attract the people from the surrounding 
country. It is a truly inspiring work that is being ac- 
complished here. Mr. Chatelain puts into it the impet- 
uosity of youth ; everybody adores him. The neighbor- 
ing villages call him and wish also to have "their wor- 
ship" ; for from the beginning they have frankly 
spoken of evangelical "worship," instead of saying 
timidly "public addresses." Miss Chatelain has be- 
come a nurse. From all sides they bring the sick to 
her. She cares for their ailments and heals them. 
From time to time I send her a little medicine ; she is 
adored by these good peasants and known for two 
leagues around. She, Mr. Bysshe, and I sang trios at 
both meetings yesterday. 

The part he played in the meetings Mr. Chatelain tells 
us himself : 

"We used to talk much of our evangelistic work in 
Savoy. He was very much interested, rejoiced at our 
progress, and was saddened by the base slanders directed 
against us. It was at the time when our campaign under 
the tent, at Bourgneuf, was in full swing. Several hun- 
dred persons from the countryside were coming evening 
after evening and three times on Sunday to listen to the 
word of the Gospel. . . . Mr. Roger used to come 
nearly every Sunday to lend us his assistance. He used 
to come by bicycle from Albertville, twenty-four kilo- 
meters, which made forty-eight kilometers for the round 
trip. Everybody was glad to see him. Seated beside 
the evangelists, this fine, tall young man in the dress of a 
chasseur alpin made a great impression on the audience. 



82 ROGER ALLIER 

He helped us by his warm sympathy and his prayers, and 
then he helped by taking part in our modest choir. Yes, 
everybody loved him. When, later, I announced that 
he had disappeared — not knowing then of his death — I 
saw many persons weep. . . . 

"At Notre Dame des Millieres, seven kilometers from 
Albertville, he used to come often also to help us Sunday 
afternoon. In the special meetings, he always used to 
take an active part. At Christmas, for example, he used 
to trim and light the tree ; look out for the children ; recite 
a bit of poetry; and sing and aid in distributing the 
packages to the children. . . . Obviously, being a 
soldier, he could not do all that he would have liked 
to do. He would have liked to give us more effective 
help. But he was doing his best. As for myself per- 
sonally, I keep a grateful and loving remembrance of 
him." 

All the trips to Bourgneuf and Notre Dame des Mil- 
lieres Roger made without in any way easing up in his 
work, which was becoming harder and harder. It was 
then that he used to say to his parents: "Never advise 
a young man to enter the alpins; you will assume too 
heavy a responsibility. But if a young man is going into 
the alpins, do not spare congratulations ; when he has 
stood this trial — not in the sadder sense of the word but 
in its etymological meaning — he will be capable of some- 
thing in life." 

From the beginning of April, the training assumes a 
redoubled intensity with a view to the approaching sum- 
mer maneuvers. The commander is ready every day 
with the most unforeseen inventions to complicate this 
training. Roger's accounts are quite fantastic. In these 
epic circuits the officers are spared no more than the men ; 
in talking with the latter the young corporal notes some 
touching incidents : < 



ALBERTVILLE 83 

Albertville, May i, 19 12. 

One of the men, a Chamoniard, had been a member 
of Lieutenant Krug's detail, which had accompHshed 
such fine raids in our sector. Like all the chasseurs 
who know Mr. Krug, he is very much wrapped up in 
him; he related to me things which nobody knows, so 
modest is Mr. Krug. 

Thus, one evening, after a long forage, they stopped 
in a hamlet to pass the night. It was impossible to 
find beds for all. Finally everybody was cared for 
except one chasseur. Mr. Krug said to him : "We shall 
share the bed ; you will take the mattress." Naturally 
the chasseur refused emphatically. He would prefer 
to pass the night on the floor. Mr. Krug forced him 
to take the mattress. He himself slept on the bench, 
which did not prevent him from setting out on the mor- 
row at the head of the ski-runners, more tireless than 
ever. 

At this time, Roger is classed among the candidate 
student-officers, whose instruction is pushed very hard : 

Same date. 

For about ten days the instruction of the candidate 
officers has been pushed to the limit. We form a little 
platoon of six or seven, directed only by officers. We 
have a study period from three o'clock to five, and 
some courses in the evening. We make many maps of 
the surrounding country, but particular emphasis is laid 



84 ROGER ALLIER 

on the command of the company, which we take each 
day, and on physical exercises. We spend hours on 
the portique,^ in Swedish gymnastics, in jumping, in 
long runs at double time. That recalls to me the time 
when I used to be under the orders of Ch., except 
that the officers are polite and our training is more 
scientific. We are beginning to have little bouts, two 
by two, in bayonet fencing. 

They allow us almost no respite; we caper without 
ceasing, but our exercise is interrupted for ten minutes 
in order that we may change our shirts. We wet two 
shirts a morning; I am ashamed to pass on to posterity 
such a detail, but it is more eloquent than long sen- 
tences. 

Between times, they continue to receive training in 
mountain cHmbing: 

Albertville, June 9, 1912. 

Thursday was our glorious day. We beat our rec- 
ords and made a reconnaissance which lasted from 
two-thirty in the morning till six-thirty in the evening. 

We took our knapsacks and, wearing field uniforms, 
climbed to Alpettaz, a wooded crest which towers over 
Ugine, and on the summit of which we have a little 
blockhouse. There we left our sacks and took a little 
cold repast on the grass of a pretty glade overlooking 



* "A rectangular platform 3.5 m. or 4.5 m. above the ground, 
used in various gymnastic exercises." — "A French-English Mili- 
tary Technical Dictionary," by Cornelis De Witt Willcox. 



ALBERTVILLE 85 

Tournette. Then we set out in the snow to make the 
ascent of the Dent de Cons. It is the most difficult 
ascent that one can make in the neighborhood of Al- 
bertville; an interminable ridge of rocks which tapers 
to a knife edge at the summit. Captain Boutie was 
making it for the first time. He had insisted that the 
colonel let him lead his company there, while the rest of 
the battalion was climbing to the "Belle Etoile" above 
the saddle of Tamie. Thanks to his prudence and that 
of Mr. Krug, who was acting as our guide and marking 
the trail, there was no accident. We had set out in 
the morning in uncertain weather. At the summit 
we had a perfectly clear panorama; the fog lay in the 
bottom of the valley. We were able to search the de- 
tails of the Mont Blanc range, of Vanoise, of the 
Grandes Rousses, and of Belledonne. One could 
clearly see the jagged peaks which tower over the Mer 
de Glace, the Aiguille Dru, the Aiguille Verte, the 
glacier of the Tour, the valley of Finhaut, and the 
mountains of Valais. The captain showed his "little 
children" the passes which they were to traverse during 
the maneuvers. All are still covered with snow. 

I forgot to say that on the slopes of the "Belle 
Etoille" we saw little files of white breeches. They 
were our comrades toiling on the other slope. When 
they had reached the summit, our bugles sent over to 
them the strains of the "Petits Rossards" and part 
of "La Protestation des Chasseurs," of which the 
mountains sent back the echo. Their bugles replied 
to ours. It was very pretty. 



86 ROGER ALLIER 

On the descent the captain was very much tempted 
by a great neve situated on the other side of the Dent. 
But before reaching it we had to surmount a bluff, 
two hundred meters in height, which it took us a long 
time to climb, in small groups to avoid loosening the 
stones. The first to arrive waited at the summit of 
the neve. Then the whole company set out sliding, 
our iron-tipped sticks serving as brakes. 

At a given moment, I was off abreast of the captain 
and Lieutenant Krug, when my feet got caught in a 
hole, my head shot forward, I let go of my stav, and 
made some beautiful somersaults in the snow, to the 
amusement of the captain, who cried to me, "Fine, my 
boy, keep it up." I had snow in my eyes, down my 
neck, everywhere, and everything looked blue. The 
rest of the descent passed without incident. We rested 
from noon until three o'clock in a little hamlet of four 
or five cottages, where I drank I do not know how 
many bowls of hot milk. At six-thirty we returned 
to the barracks, tired and with heavy step. After thir- 
teen hours of marching we had not a single laggard ! 

I never tire of admiring the way our officers know 
how to manage their men. Everything is based on 
amour propre. The captain especially has the snap 
and gaiety of one possessed. It is he who makes the 
morale of his company. When a man is at the end 
of his resources, he always finds a way to let fall some 
bit of encouragement for him, some remark which 
makes him laugh. He pours him out a drop of rum 
and takes his knapsack! Naturally, the individual 



ALBERTVILLE 87 

resists, takes back his knapsack, lifts his head, and 
makes a new effort. He pants Hke a bull, but for 
nothing in the world would he "quit." His comrades 
take his gun and pass it to one another in turn. They 
enter the yard of the quarters. The company draws 
up at attention and presents arms. What does the 
captain do? He gives you a last cut of the whip in 
a short speech of three or four sentences : "My young 
chasseurs, we have just finished a painful reconnais- 
sance. I was the first to sweat through my shirt and 
fatigue jacket. You have conducted yourselves dash- 
ingly, like true chasseurs. Hereafter you are worthy 
of wearing the Tam o'Shanter. Keep this up and you 
will make as good maneuvers as your seniors. Good 
night, my young lads." What an ovation as we mount 
the stairs ! For two days one has heard only this 
phrase, "The captain said we were worthy of wearing 
the Tam o'Shanter." It has made the rounds of the 
battalion, 

Friday was devoted to rest, except for a sentimental 
walk which we took in the mountains in search — 
of flowers! 

At this time, in order to make it easier for his parents 
to follow the interminable trips which the battalion is 
making in the region, he adopts the custom, on each of 
his marches, of buying the prettiest picture postcards of 
the places they pass through, each of which forms a page 
which he covers with fine handwriting. His accounts 
thus arranged constitute a journal of the route, embel- 
lished by beautiful photographs. 



88 ROGER ALLIER 

After an incredible march in the Bauges range, he 
obtains a three days' leave of absence. Paris being too 
far away, he spends it at Geneva, where he is received 
like a child of the family in the home of Messrs. Ernest 
and Edouard Favre. The latter is eager to have him visit 
for himself the lofty city. "Thanks to him," writes 
Roger, "I am very well instructed." And we know, from 
other details, that he found at our friends' home other 
things than instruction. How many times he has spoken 
with emotion of this stay at Chougny and at Pregny! 

The summer is coming. "The cattle," writes he (June 
iSth), "are coming up to the grazing land. On the roads 
one meets great herds of them ; one hears only the lowing 
of the cows and the bleating of the sheep. The alpins also 
are moving to the mountains." The battalion has left 
Albertville; it will not return until autumn. They will 
camp hereafter only in barns or in the open air. Like 
his comrades, Roger has to prepare for these migrations 
by drawing a map of the sector. He does it with loving 
care for the minutise : 

June 30, 19 1 2. 

I have become very strong on the topography of our 
sector. Eight days ago, I handed the colonel (as did 
all the non-commissioned officers of the battalion) a 
map on the 1/80,000 scale, showing the altitude of 
the mountains. It was fine. Yesterday I received 
congratulations on its precision. The colonel sent back 
my work with a little note, a thing he almost never 
does. At that time I had around me, in the yard of 
the quarters, a whole assemblage of officers. Lieuten- 
ant Jaillet, who made the General Staff's map of the 
region of the Chotts of Tunis, indicated a few correc- 



ALBERTVILLE 89 

tions. Captain Boutle was radiant and patted me on 
the shoulder. 



The hour for leaving the quarters for the mountain is 
approaching. Every one is overflowing with enthusiasm 
for it: 

Same date. 

We are very happy to set out. For a week we have 
been counting the days. We are glad to sleep on straw, 
to breathe the fresh mountain air, and to drink good 
milk. This happiness is proclaimed by the sounds of 
the bugles, playing improvised airs. It is a tradition to 
permit this during the week preceding the maneuvers. 
Our better buglers are very clever at inventing tunes. 
The corporal-bugler is wonderful. When he plays 
very softly, one would say positively that it was a 
flute. It is the first time that I have ever heard this 
effect obtained with a bugle. The other evening for 
"taps" at ten o'clock, he played us the whole of a long 
cradle song. This morning, at reveille, the whole band 
played two pieces. Yesterday, at the evening roll call, 
we had a hunting song, which suits the alpins better. 

This joy was shared by all the alpins after the depart- 
ure for the mountain had commenced. Roger wrote 
June i8th: 

"Yesterday morning the Third Company left for the 
Bonhomme. Five or six days ago our neighbors of 



90 ROGER ALLIER 

the Sixth Company left us to go up to Frejus. They 
started at four in the morning and arrived in three 
stages. All night they were unbearable. In place of 
resting they had battles, turned somersaults, executed 
high jumps, climbed the columns and played bears. 
Others went through the manual of arms and bayonet 
fencing in their shirts. In another room they were all 
wrapped up in their blankets, and, gathered around 
the corporal's bed, were singing in unison the mass for 
the dead." 

The first marches are along the neck of Roseland, 
under a driving rain. But they do not last long for those 
who are to go to Lyon to take the examinations for 
student-officers. The latter go to Chapieux on a sort of 
preparatory "retreat." What happy memories they all 
retain of it! Later their thoughts will often revert to 
those two weeks of quiet intimacy in a rugged and awe- 
inspiring country: 

July 20, 19 12. 

That was a delightful physical and mental rest. Each 
day, after working moderately in preparation for our 
examinations, we took our sticks and climbed the 
rocks hunting for flowers. I have sent you several 
different varieties, all pressed and all of them of the 
sort that grow only in high altitudes; I did not pick 
any others. 

It was during this stay that my friend Giguet made 
my portrait; he used an enlargement I had had made 
of a photograph which you must have received with the 



ALBERTVILLE 91 

flowers. Giguet is an extremely gifted youth. He is 
employed by the P. L. M. [Paris-Lyon-Mediterranean 
Railway Co.] at the station of Fayet-St.-Gervais and 
has never studied drawing. He is quite learned along 
literary and classical lines, knows Latin and Greek very 
well, has read all the French literature, is strong on 
mathematics, and writes poetry. He is a true artist 
and ought to make his mark. 

If you only knew all the deep questions which were 
discussed at Chapieux, in our little room, from eight 
to eleven at night! What a trio we made, Giguet, 
Lang, and I ! Everything was discussed there : the 
reality of the visible world, liberty, determinism, 
moral evolution, classic sophistry, the most vital social 
problems. And as one thing led to another, we never 
got around to going to bed. We felt that we were gay 
dogs of alpins. But also, what laziness the next 
morning ! 

Towards five o'clock one of us, seized with fine zeal, 
would cry, "Come, get up !" Then he would turn 
over and go on sleeping. In a corner of the room, a 
voice would moan, "Oh ! what nerve !" and the third 
would reply, "Are you never going to be still? . . . 
It is impossible to sleep." About seven o'clock we 
would decide to get up and go to the inn, to the 
"Maman," to begin the day with ham and eggs and a 
large bowl of chocolate. What a placid life ! Abstract 
discussions, very concrete eats, exercise in the open 
air, sleep . . . nothing was lacking. The evening 
before our departure, Lieutenant Boell invited us to 



92 ROGER ALLIER 

dinner, and in lienor of our examination offered us 
champagne. . . . 

Last Sunday, as tradition decreed. Lieutenant Boell 
reviewed the post of Chapieux: a ceremony which 
seemed absurd in its formahty, merely because we 
were only a handful of men in a lost corner of the 
Alps. We were photographed at the moment when 
we were presenting arms and when he was responding 
to us by a salute with his saber. After the review we 
went to pay honor to a little monument which has been 
erected in the gorge in memory of a chasseur who 
died on the mountain. In the afternoon, we set out 
for Lyon, knapsacks on our backs. 



At the time when he was writing these lines, the exam- 
ination was over. It took place the sixteenth, seventeenth, 
and eighteenth of July. The result was not to be known 
until later. While waiting, he had to rejoin his comrades 
in Haute Maurienne. The efforts required to secure 
supplies were formidable. Certain details of these 
maneuvers give an idea of the type of warfare which 
the Italians had to carry on during the Great War. 
In the war games of 191 2, Roger and his comrades 
wear the white Tarn; they represent invaders arriving 
in the upper valley of the Arc by the pass of Iseran and 
trying to drive back the defenders towards Saint-Jean- 
de-Maurienne. 

July 27, 1912. 

The Alpine infantry is fighting in the valley and 
on the slopes. The chasseurs are ordered to fight on 



ALBERTVILLE 93 

the mountains and to make tremendous climbs in order 
to be able to turn the enemy and fall unexpectedly on 
his flank. The principle of mountain warfare is that 
the contestants always try to surpass each other in 
altitude; and even if they are forced to draw back, it 
is still on to the heights that they retreat. 

As if these tasks were not enough they add others 
which are sources of both pleasure and pride : 

Same date. 

Tuesday was a day of complete rest which should, 
according to the decision, have been divided between 
sleep and the needs of bodily cleanliness. The officers 
only had to make reconnaissances. I was sleeping 
soundly, therefore, on a bit of straw, my hand on my 
knapsack, when, towards three in the morning, I felt 
myself shaken. The light of a lantern dazzled me, I 
recognized the voice of the captain telling me to put on 
my puttees quickly and to grab my ski stav and cord. 
I obeyed him mechanically and before more than half 
awake was crossing the little wooden bridge over the 
Arc. The fresh air quickly wakened me. It was still 
quite dark when we scaled the mountain. 

On the other slope. In the direction of Vanolse, 
stretched the glaciers of Vefrette and Vallombrun. 
After climbing perpendicular paths with the aid of 
ropes, we reached the glaciers. The captain had me 
scan the horizon with his glasses. Starting with Mont 



94 ROGER ALLIER 

Rose we scanned all the glaciers of the Italian Alps. 
On the French side we saw Vanoise and all the moun- 
tains to the south of the Arc up to the Meije range 
and that of the Barre des Ecrins. In front of us, 
towards the east, rose the enormous peak of Char- 
bonnel with its crevasse-filled glaciers. With our 
glasses we saw a little caravan in the act of rounding 
the peak to reach the summit ; they were other officers, 
who had set out at midnight. We descended into the 
valley about one o'clock. . . . 

At the moment of our reaching Lanslebourg a ter- 
rible storm broke and we arrived at the stopping place 
in a beating rain. That did not prevent us from mak- 
ing a triumphal entry. The infantry had been installed 
there at ease for a long time. Thus we held our heads 
higher than ever and strutted. The general of the 
brigade, in Alpine uniform, stood before the principal 
hotel with the foreign military attaches, who are al- 
ways filled with admiration by the Alpine maneuvers. 
The colonel reminded us of that haughty sentence 
which is written on the walls of our barracks at Con- 
flans : "The riflemen on foot are picked soldiers ; the 
alpins are the best soldiers in the world." Then our 
trumpets and our hunting horns bade us march past, at 
mad speed. We were applauded by the tourists who 
filled the hotels and by those who had just arrived by 
automobile from Mont Cenis. It is after a day of hard 
tasks that one should judge the alpins. After sleeping 
on excellent beds we set out again at three o'clock in 
the morning. 



ALBERTVILLE 95 

July 31, 1912. 

This is the day when the awful period of unexpected 
maneuvers ends. We need rest. In my last letter, I 
told you that we had climbed to 3,079 meters. We 
mounted the pass of Aussois. Monday was less hard. 
In the evening the colonel had said: "Men of the 
chasseurs, now gird up your loins. One more grand 
effort and tomorrow you will be kings of the mountain. 
It is going to be necessary to climb very high to en- 
velop the enemy." With full equipment as always, and 
after the discomfort of a very bad encampment, we 
went up to 2,800 meters. During the last hour, the 
entire battalion scaled the precipitous slopes of crum- 
bling rock. It would have made a wonderful photo- 
graph. The pieces of the machine guns were carried 
on men's backs in very difficult passages. Mr. Krug 
arrived in time to open fire upon the scouts of the 
Eleventh who were appearing at the summit of the 
mountain, above our heads. That permitted us, al- 
ways with our heavy knapsacks, to assault the last steep 
slopes. The struggle was so hot that accidents were 
narrowly averted; the enemy chasseurs pretended to 
try to stop us with blows of their ski staffs ! The in- 
fantry officers who were aiding in the maneuvers were 
astounded and said that never had they seen such a 
climb by men in full field equipment. 



After traversing in every direction the region of the 
Petit and of the Grand Mont Cenis, the battalion had to 



96 ROGER ALLIER 

go to UppCi Savoy, and ascend the valley of Chamonix. 
Roger, who knew this, had persuaded his parents to go 
to the Hotel des Montees, between Servoz and the 
Houches. The whole family united there. From Paris 
and from the South they had agreed to meet there and 
all were prepared to applaud the approaching alpins. 
They had not reckoned, however, on the aphthous fever 
which was raging in Tarentaise. Upper Savoy was quar- 
antined. There was only one possible revenge against 
hostile circumstances. Since the alpins did not come to 
those who were awaiting them, they had only to go and 
join the alpins. The decision was quickly made. It led 
to a trip, the hardships of which they are not likely to 
forget. After making the rough passage of the saddles 
of Galibier (2,657m.) and of Lautaret, these pursuers 
of the Twenty-second joined it at La Grave and accom- 
panied it to the Bourg d'Oisans, to Vizille, Uriage, and 
Domene. 

The battalion returned to Albertville^ somewhat early. 
The reason for this was that it had been detailed to par- 
ticipate in the great maneuvers of the West, which had 
an unusual importance. It set out without taking the 
least rest. There it found prodigious tasks. But the 
alpins showed themselves worthy of their reputation. 
Pride made them accomplish extraordinary miracles of 
endurance. Those who saw them in these circumstances 
are not astonished at what they are capable of accom- 
plishing in time of war. 

^ The Lyon Republicain of August 31, 1912: "The Chasseurs 
of the 22nd Battalion coming from Rochette arrived Thursday 
morning at Albertville. Setting out at three o'clock they arrived 
at the halting place at eleven. They thus covered in eight hours 
and with an average pack of thirty kilograms a journey of forty- 
five kilometers without dropping any laggards. It is a fine record 
which does honor to our alpins, whose qualities of endurance and 
enthusiasm it puts in relief." 



ALBERTVILLE 97 

Plowed fields and the roads of the plains do not offer 
them an exactly familiar terrain. It makes no difference ! 

September 10, 1912. 

Not a laggard, in spite of the terrible stages. Some 
reservists only, their feet bleeding, were picked up by 
the ambulance. But their Alpine amour propre is not 
less than ours. It is only two years since they first 
"made the Alps." I have already saved some of them, 
who were about to fall from weariness, by carrying 
their knapsacks for a time. 

He himself was a cyclist; and when his comrades at 
last were at rest, he had often to resume, as if he had done 
nothing, a very difficult service. When the battalion 
seemed at the end of its strength, still further demands 
were made and always somehow met. One evening it 
is made known to the alpins that they are to take posses- 
sion of a village to encamp there. General Barret, whose 
energy is proverbial, feels that it is too much to demand 
of them. He wishes to advise the general of the division 
to this effect. Accordingly he entrusts to Roger a note: 
"The alpins have covered fifty-six kilometers. Do not 
force them into a new struggle." But it is impossible 
to pass in order to carry the note. The general orders the 
attack : 

September 14, 19 12. 

We glided into the shadow around the village, where 
the foot-soldiers were tranquilly getting dinner, sus- 
pecting nothing. The order was : "Not a shot, all with 
the bayonet." Suddenly, at the sound of the Sidi- 



98 ROGER ALLIER 

Brahim, the Eleventh and the Twenty-second charged 
from different directions. The infantry fled, leaving 
plates and pots along the hedges. We only barely 
missed capturing the flag. The zeal of the chasseurs 
was extraordinary. The idea of surprising a whole 
regiment of infantrymen, of seizing its encampment 
and drinking its soup, suddenly took away all their 
fatigue. 

And every day there is the same intense training : 

Same date. 

Tuesday and Wednesday we covered ninety-eight 
kilometers, many of which were over plowed ground. 
The rapidity of our marching surprises everybody. 
"The hills of this country are for the alpins only heaps 
of sand," says an article in the Matin. When we 
reached Martaize, Wednesday evening, the people were 
saying : "They can't be the chasseurs. In the afternoon 
they had a battle twenty kilometers from here, and here 
they are again." Thursday evening, I was "all in." 
About ten o'clock, as we stopped by the roadside I 
leaned against the embankment and went to sleep 
standing up. 

All these efforts were to have their reward : 

Albertville, September 25, 191 2. 
These maneuvers have been back-breaking, and 



ALBERTVILLE 99 

partly my own fault. Knowing that I should in a few 
days leave the Twenty-second, I worked harder than 
ever. The colonel has every confidence in me. Every 
time that there was a delicate task to do — preparing 
a cantonment, making a difficult reconnaissance need- 
ing the use of the map of the General Staff, and the 
like — he entrusted this mission to me, and the captain 
could not make him yield. 

The captain has been particularly kind to me. More 
than once, seeing that I had not the time to appease 
my hunger, he has made me come to his table and fed 
me substantially. His way of speaking is, usually, 
very severe. He has become quite fatherly towards 
me. One evening, he had me summoned and asked me 
in the presence of several officers : "Has the colonel 
told you that he is pleased with you and wishes to make 
you a sergeant?" I replied to him that I should be 
happy to leave the battalion with this testimony of 
confidence and that I was very eager to leave the 
Twenty-second a favorable recollection of myself. 
"My dear Allier," he replied to me, word for word, 
"you may he assured of the esteem of all the officers of 
the battalion, without exception. You must return to 
a battalion of alpins next year. The mountains for 
you. Couldn't we get you back by exchange or other- 
wise?" ... 

The captain and lieutenants of the Third Company 
also seem satisfied. There has not been the least hitch 
in my service. Thus, I have succeeded in awakening 
them always at the desired hour, right on the minute. 



lOO ROGER ALLIER 

The colonel has promised several times to promote me 
to the rank of sergeant before my departure for Gren- 
oble. That will be greatly in my favor. 

In the midst of the maneuvers, September 9th, he is 
informed that he has been appointed a student-officer. 
September 25th, having returned to Albertville, he learns 
that he has been promoted to the rank of sergeant of the 
Fourth Company. He gets ready to go to Grenoble. 



VI 

GRENOBLE 
(October, 1912-March, 1913) 

Change of environment — The ascent of the Trois 
Pucelles — A group of cHmbers and ski-runners — Threats 
of war — With the Christian students — At Chamrousse — 
Visit to Albertville — ^At Mont Revard. 



VI 

GRENOBLE 

Roger is installed at Grenoble, October i, 1912. He is 
at once delighted with the city and captivated by his new 
studies. He is above all extremely sensitive to the change 
of environment. 

Grenoble, October 16, 19 12. 

The student-officers are very few this year — only 
sixty-nine, a chosen few, it would seem ! The majority 
have pursued advanced studies. Among them there 
are several fine fellows and I have already some 
very good friends. Nearly all, keen Alpinists, are 
volunteers in the alpins; several are Parisians, Their 
conversation and manners suggest the School of Polit- 
ical Sciences rather than the barracks. We have for 
instructors officers detailed by the Alpine battalions of 
Grenoble, They call us "Messieurs," most punctili- 
ously. 

At mess, we have a little round table of Alpinists. 
Conversation does not lag. How many things we have 
to tell one another, belonging, as we do, to so many 
different battalions and having just spent three months 
in the mountains ! Facing me, is a corporal who be- 
longed to the corps of scouts of the Thirtieth — the 

103 



I04 ROGER ALLIER 

Tyrolese, as they are called because of their knapsacks. 
He has made many practice marches over the glaciers 
of the Oisans and, naturally, swears by nothing higher 
than his battalion. The others rally him a great deal 
about it. 

Neither is gaiety lacking in the platoon. One must 
be on one's guard. The pearl fishers are in abundance. 
The least blunder, the slightest mishap is picked up 
and caricatured. Officers and students have already 
their little pile, which grows from day to day, await- 
ing the review at the end of the year. 

This gaiety, however, does not lessen the work in any 
way: 

Same date. 

Up to the present, I have spent all of my evenings 
working, for I have long reviews to make and the 
"pluckings" are frequent here. My time is my own 
until eleven o'clock. The classes or lectures come in 
the morning. They deal with such subjects as tactics, 
topography, fortification, artillery, and military legis- 
lation. Each morning, we have an hour of gymnastics. 
The afternoons from one to five are devoted to field 
exercises — target practice, formations, maneuvers at 
double time, or surveying — or, in case of bad weather, 
to exercises in map work. From the physical point of 
view this life is not very tiring, especially for chas- 
seurs. . . . 

Up to the present I have got along all right. I do 



GRENOBLE 105 

not lack responsibility, however. The platoon is 
divided into three sections. As sergeant, I have re- 
ceived the command of one of these. Several times a 
day, I have to make a minute examination of rooms, 
packs, equipment, arms, and dress, button by button. 
Up to the present, I have had only congratulations and 
I am astonished at having so easily made my comrades 
obey me. 

A mishap reminds Roger and his friends that they are 
not limited to the routine of study or set maneuvers. 
Three chasseurs and he had decided to climb a small 
group of peaks which tower over the city and which are 
called the Trois Pucelles: 

Same date. 

We had set out Sunday morning at daybreak, under 
a heavy fog, with sixty meters of rope. From the 
foot of the Pucelles the view was magnificent — below, 
a great sea of clouds stretching as far as the glaciers of 
Mont Blanc; great waves breaking into foam against 
the limestone cliffs of the Grande Chartreuse. The 
mountains of the Oisans and Belledonne were glisten- 
ing white. 

We put on our twine-soled canvas shoes and began 
the climb, peak by peak. The most difficult is Dent 
Gerard. On the summit of this we left our names in 
a little iron box. To come down from this Dent, we 
fastened the rope to a rock and let ourselves slip, one 
by one, to a little ledge. Everything fared splendidly, 



io6 ROGER ALLIER 

except for my trousers. I grazed a rock covered with 
rough places. My beautiful new trousers were nothing 
more than a rag. We repaired them temporarily and 
descended to Grenoble, arriving at nine o'clock in the 
evening. They assured me at the Alpine Club that the 
complete passage of the Pucelles had previously been 
made but three or perhaps four times : once by Capde- 
pon, the celebrated Alpinist, who had an accident in 
attempting Meije; twice by chasseurs. 

The next day I reported my adventure to the lieu- 
tenant. I was expecting, not to be punished, but to be 
lectured roundly. Instead of that, all the officers con- 
gratulated me. My lieutenant, who is very much given 
to sports, treats me now like a friend. The captain, 
after having me replace my trousers at my own ex- 
pense, authorized me to wear civilian clothes on Sun- 
day to make the mountain climbs. 

We are not made to ask for leave, my comrades 
and I. Sunday morning, we took the first train for the 
town of Oisans and descended into the gorge of Livet, 
at the place where the path crosses the Romanche. 
There we consulted a peasant who has the water rights 
at this point and who knows the mountains very well, 
for he hunts the chamois there. Do you remember the 
wooded valleys and the jagged peaks which dominate 
the right of the valley?^ It was by one of these passes 
that we climbed for four hours. You cannot imagine 
the beauty of the forest in this season. There is a rich- 

'■ An allusion to the trip his parents took the preceding year 
while following the Twenty-second. 



GRENOBLE 107 

ness of coloring, a diversity of tints impossible to de- 
scribe. In taking photographs we felt as if we were 
committing a veritable crime. Towards one o'clock we 
attained the goal of our excursion, Grand Galbert, a 
wonderful helveder from which the view embraces 
the whole panorama of Oisans, Vercors, Belledonne, 
and the Grandes Rousses. What a glittering of 
glaciers! We descended by very bad roads into prac- 
tically unexplored gorges. Joanne devotes hardly a 
line to them, and yet they are true marvels. I thought 
of you in passing near a tranquil, pine-encompassed 
lake, in which the Taillefer range is reflected as in a 
mirror. We returned to Grenoble after sunset. If 
only our retinas could preserve the wonderful impres- 
sions they have received! We promise ourselves to 
start out again soon, if the weather permits. Be as- 
sured that we shall do nothing foolhardy. We have all 
four had experience in mountain climbing and form a 
very homogeneous group; being of about equal 
strength, we know that we can depend on one another. 



The result of all these climbs is an incredibly crowded 
life : during the hours of service, driving work, and at the 
first moment of leisure, flight to the mountains. Interest 
in the work is kept up by a thought that comes to be 
constantly in Roger's mind : "Each of us will have — ^per- 
haps soon— the responsibility for sixty human lives" 
(November 20, 1912). 

Despite the intensity of this life, the slightest sug- 
gestion recalls his keenness for the classics, which Alpin- 
ism has not stifled. This manifests itself in conjunction 



io8 ROGER ALLIER 

with his interest in the poHtical questions of the hour and 
his feeling of coming responsibilities. With reference to 
an article in which his father had spoken of an English 
work on the economic causes of the Trojan War, he 
writes : 

November 25, 19 12. 

The reading of your article has reawakened in me 
old Greek memories. All had not been said, therefore, 
on the Trojan War! I little thought to see it emerge 
among present-day topics. Would that the events in 
the Orient might bring back to our old Homer a little 
of his ancient popularity ! That would be an original 
and wholly unexpected result. Perhaps we shall soon 
see history repeat itself. The Allies will divide the 
spoils of Turkey. Discord will be born again, as of 
old among the Greeks with their beautiful greaves. 
We shall see a little Balkan prince sulking in his tent 
and we shall say that the w^ath of Achilles is not mere 
allegory. 

Winter is come, however ; and with it the snow. Now 
the sports begin : 

Grenoble, December 11, 19 12. 

For several weeks we have been enjoying remark- 
ably clear weather. It is very cold. Skating and all 
winter sports are in full swing. Our windows are ob- 
scured each morning with the frost. We have four 
covers but no fire. The alpins set out last Monday to 
spend three days in Chartreuse, camping in the snow. 



GRENOBLE 109 

You cannot imagine the beauty of the mountains at 
this moment. Each evening at five o'clock, on coming 
back from exercise, we witness a purple sunset which 
embraces the whole chain of the Alps. This makes 
our chasseurs' hearts beat wildly and we joylessly con- 
template the approaching termination of our two years. 
While "the others" count the days, we reserve for our- 
selves alone the right to sing the "Song of the Moun- 
taineers." 

We received, some time ago, letters from our seniors 
who are experiencing in their way homesickness for 
the mountains. Everybody misses his two years of 
life as a chasseur alpin. One of them, having returned 
to Paris, ends his letter in this discouraged tone : "Why 
must I leave the Alps forever, when it is there that I 
spent the two happiest years of my life?" I am begin- 
ning to understand why many reenlist in the alpins. 
One feels the break so poignantly. 



In this marvelous country how can one help dreaming 
of things out of the ordinary: 



Grenoble, December 19, 19 12. 

Our little knot of ski-runners has formed a new pro- 
ject : to attend midnight mass Christmas Eve, in some 
quaint village in the heart of the mountains. Shall it 
be Saint Jean d'Arve or Saint-Christophe-en-Oisans ? 
We do not yet know. What we do know is that there 
will be much snow and that this arrival of ski-runners 



no ROGER ALLIER 

in the moonlight will astonish the natives. We shall 
soberly go to bed after boisterously singing some 
mountain airs and fraternizing in fancy with the 
alpins who, in their winter posts, will be busy celebrat- 
ing Christmas. Think of me that evening. 

Unhappily an accident hinders the realization of this 
plan: 

Grenoble, December 25, 1912. 

We climbed last Sunday, in less than an hour, to the 
signal station of Chamrousse. On the way down I 
took a bad fall. Shooting down a steep slope and try- 
ing to make a sharp turn with all speed to avoid the 
edge of the wood, I fell head first into the snow and 
gave a slight twist to my left ankle. I suffered a good 
deal of pain during the descent to Uriage; it was a 
five hour march. Donckele^ carried my knapsack and 



^ Left as second lieutenant of the 66th Battalion of Chasseurs 
and mentioned in the Order of the Battalion : "Wounded in the 
arm by a ball, refused to give up the command of the section, 
which is, moreover, the most dangerous post in the battalion, 
and continued his work." He was made, as a result of this 
action. Knight of the Legion of Honor: "Wounded by a ball 
which went through his shoulder, in the battle of October 6, 
1914, he was unwilling to give up the command of his section, 
did not give up until night, and refused to go to the rear. 
Though incompletely recovered, took up his command again, 
October 14, thus giving an example of rare energy and of the 
highest sentiments of devotion." — Promoted lieutenant, he fell 
May 8, 1915, at Fonquevillers (pas-de-Calais) and has been men- 
tioned in the Order of the Army : "Wounded at the end of two 
months' campaigning, he rejoined his regiment before completely 
recovered. He did not cease to give proof of the highest military 



GRENOBLE iii 

skis. I was very well cared for. By dint of hot baths 
and massage I am able to walk comfortably and I am 
counting on not limping at all on my arrival in Paris. 

Three days later, he arrived in Paris on a short leave 
of absence. On January 3rd he had returned to Gren- 
oble, and wrote: "Here I once more greet with pleasure 
the north wind and the keen air." 

For those who know how to look a little further than 
the windings of the Palais-Bourbon, the international 
situation at the end of 1912 was becoming disquieting. 
Clearly, those who for forty-two years had been prepar- 
ing for war were asking themselves if the moment had 
not come to declare it. As early as December 19th, in 
reply to some definite questions which his father had 
asked him, Roger had replied : 

You put me in an embarrassing position when you 
question me on war rumors. In order not to frighten 
you, I did not say a word about it in my last letters. I 
have the impression that the war spirit has been quieted 
for some days. One no longer expects marching 
orders from one minute to the next. . . . 

Our young chasseurs have been put this year to a 
hard test. They have been instructed with feverish 
haste in order that they might be made ready to go 
directly into campaign service. Do you remember the 



qualities : bravery, tenacity, a spirit of sacrifice. Won his ap- 
pointment at the age of twenty-three years, to membership in 
the Legion of Honor. Fell mortally wounded during a night 
reconnaissance, where he gave to the chasseurs, who love him, a 
supreme example of bravery and disregard of danger." 



112 ROGER ALLIER 

emergency drills and the repeated tests of mobilization 
to which we were subjected last January? The mobil- 
ization exercises for the alpins took place three weeks 
ago. They are considered as mobilizable and have 
just finished a series of long marches. They have been 
encamped in the snow for some days. 

They believe here, even outside the circle of officers 
with whom I have conversed, that the war has been 
prevented in part by the severity of the winter. But 
it is so generally looked upon as in prospect for next 
spring that I am becoming accustomed to this thought, 
to the point of taking it for granted. I notice this same 
conviction among all my comrades. Artillery, forti- 
fications, battle maneuvers interest them in a singular 
fashion. We study in a very practical manner on the 
field the different emergencies which might present 
themselves in a battle. They teach us a thousand ways 
of conducting troops, under artillery fire, or under 
more or less intense infantry fire, and of shielding 
these troops from cavalry attacks. We are learning to 
direct the fire, to fortify the ground, and to make an 
assault. There is not a mistake which may not cause 
the loss of some human lives, no element of skill in 
maneuvering which might not save some. Thus, we 
have the impression of preparing for something more 
serious than an examination next spring. Each of us 
will have to account for the lives of sixty men. 



January 13th, these preoccupations again come under 
his pen. He is moved to declare that the hour when 



GRENOBLE 113 

Europe seems to be again menaced by a German invasion 
is the very one in which the poHticians cannot find any- 
thing better to do than to remove the Minister of War 
from office : 



The moment could not have been better chosen : 
Germany is calHng her reservists to the colors. The 
dismissal of Millerand produced an impression of 
stupefaction, then indignation and anger. How could 
a party be so blinded by petty interests? Have our 
parliamentary bodies really lost all consciousness of 
realities, all national feelings? It is almost a betrayal 
to an enemy. . . . Those who call themselves re- 
publicans should reflect on the remote consequences of 
the act that they have just committed : it is one of those 
sins which weigh heavily on the entire Government. 
Parliamentary government will come to be despised. 
Is it not now ? And from contempt to ruin is but a step. 

Parliamentarians err as a rule in seeing in the criticism 
of their acts only the manifestation of anti-republican 
sentiments. There is their great error. He who wrote 
the hnes which have just been read entertained demo- 
cratic sentiments to the point of passion, and it was pre- 
cisely because of his attachment to parliamentary gov- 
ernment that he was so violently incensed against those 
who seem to compromise it at will. 

Roger had, too, his reasons for not being discouraged : 

January 13, 1913. 
What pleases me is to see to what an extent we are 



114 ROGER ALLIER 

prepared for the worst. If war should break out, we 
would have under our hands perfectly trained young 
troops. In three months of instruction, one can do 
wonders. I am better able to speak on this subject 
than is the average man. Every afternoon we have at 
our disposal a company of 250 alpins — war strength. 
I notice that they are very weak on the manual of arms. 
In reviews or parades they are not equal to the earlier 
classes. It is not to be wondered at: they have had 
only target practice, sham battles, and training in 
mountain climbing, things which are worth infinitely 
more than dress parades and reviews. They send them 
to us for exercises loaded down like mules ; nothing is 
forgotten in their knapsacks, not even a supply of drink 
for each man. And you should see them spring to 
obey the slightest command; they must have been 
subjected to an iron discipline. . . . 

Instead of having to drive them on in our sham 
battles, we have to hold them back, so much zeal do 
they put into leaping forward or throwing themselves 
on the ground at the least sign. Today two of them 
bruised their hands in their eagerness. What fine 
fellows ! 

The interests which he felt at Albertville have ac- 
companied him to Grenoble. He has not ceased to 
think of the decision on religious liberty which his 
father and the directors of the Society of Missions 
desire to obtain for Madagascar. He has learned that 
an English delegation has come to Paris to confer with 
the Government about it : 



GRENOBLE 115 

January 14, 1913. 

What your letter tells me of your interview with 
Sir Thomas Barclay interests me very much. Just 
where does the Madagascar question stand? Have 
you the hope of arriving soon at a solution? Is the 
attitude of Mr. Besnard, the new colonial minister, 
known? I hesitate to ask you to take the time, but 
could you in two words put me in touch with the situa- 
tion? 

The pastor at Grenoble, Mr. Arnal, who had given 
Roger a most cordial welcome, had asked his father to 
come and deliver an address at Grenoble. Naturally, 
Roger and his father were especially interested in the 
small group of Christian students who were trying to 
organize in this university town. Roger suffered because 
of being too much taken up with his work to enjoy the 
intimacy with this group which he would have wished. 
He was present, however, at some of the meetings, which 
attracted him less through the interest that they had for 
him in themselves, than because of the means they offered 
him of helping, through his attendance, to enlarge the 
sphere of influence of this growing Association in the 
University of Grenoble. 

If he is wholly devoted to his duties as a soldier and 
prospective officer, he fully reconciles them in his con- 
science with the constant concern for that which Chris- 
tians call the Kingdom of God. He reflects on what the 
churches ought to do to hasten the day when all nations, 
recognizing that each has its own particular vocation in 
exactly the same way as every person has his ethical 
function to discharge, shall resolve to respect one an- 
other, and to seek elsewhere than in war the solution of 



ii6 ROGER ALLIER 

international problems. He knows that the Federation 
of Protestant Churches of France has entrusted to his 
father the task of framing an appeal to Christendom, 
and that the text of this appeal has been sent to the dif- 
ferent churches of the world. He gives his father the 
addresses of people whom he has met in England and to 
whom he would like to have copies of this declaration 
sent. In the same letter (January o.'j, 1913), without 
transition, he asks his father to procure for him the httle 
brochure written by Captain, since General, Lyautey on 
"The Social Role of the Officer." 

He is not one of those who dream unceasingly of the 
success of a future humanity and never discover present 
needs. Everything comes to take on for him the form 
of definite obligations, which do not allow postponement. 
It is thus that he associates himself in thought with the 
Congress of the French Federation of Christian Students 
which is being held at Toulouse. He thinks of the paper 
which his father is to read there and which is based upon 
the research they made together on the subject of the 
social activities of Christian students in England and in 
the United States : 

February 2, 1913. 

That reminds me of the time when I was translating 
the meager notes destined for the Musee Social, and 
I have difficulty in believing that eighteen months have 
rolled by since then. What I find more difficult to 
believe is that soon I shall become again a student of 
the Latin Quarter. How like an expatriate I shall feel ! 

February 17, 191 3. 
If I am writing you very hurriedly, it is because I 



GRENOBLE 117 

must before the end of the day read your speech at 
Toulouse on "Our Responsibilities," . , . There was 
a time, which I regret, when, as a student, I used to 
believe that I had responsibilities. Now, my obliga- 
tions appear to me, naturally, under a rather special 
angle, and I shall read, and attempt to absorb the 
spirit of, the brochures which you have sent me, on 
"The Social Role of the Army," and that of the 
officer.^ 

Between times, he goes to seek in the mountains the 
poetry with which he is familiar and of which he has 
need: 

January 27, 19 13. 

Last Sunday, on leaving the barracks, we had our 
skis on our shoulders. After a week of rain and in- 
cessant hail storms, the weather was fine. Here we 
are, therefore, off for Uriage, counting on moonlight 
to guide us in crossing the winding, snow-covered 
paths. We have decided to climb Chamrousse, the 
mountain at the foot of which I had my bad fall the 
night before Christmas. The Alpine Club has con- 
structed up there a shelter where one can pass the 
night. There is dry wood for a fire. 

For a long time we cross deserted pastures. One 
no longer hears the cow-bells as in summer. Every- 
thing is dead. Shepherds and flocks have gone down 

"Along with the brochure of General Lyautry, his father had 
sent him another by Mr. de Boyve: "The Social Role of the 
Army," 



ii8 ROGER ALLIER 

into the valleys. A little light guides us : it is the house 
of the forester, an old alpin. He lives up there with 
his wife and children in a clearing of the great doman- 
ial forest of Premol, one of the most beautiful pine 
forests of France. It is also one of the darkest. We 
were not lost, however, thanks to the moon, which made 
myriads of small crystals shine in the snow. There 
is nothing more beautiful or restful than an excursion 
on skis at night. Everything is so still! By oneself, 
one glides without noise, hardly disturbing the snow. 
The forest has a strange solemnity. All nature seems 
congealed. In the distance towards the south stand 
out in profile the summits, with their strange shapes, 
of Devoluy and Vercors. Under their mantle of snow 
they seem barren and dead like the mountains of the 
moon. 

One thing only suggests life : far away in the depths 
of the valleys are the lights of human dwellings. 

Towards eight o'clock, we arrive in a great clear- 
ing. We open our knapsacks and eat. We must be 
careful. It was in these parts that I roamed last 
Christmas, dragging one paw ! We set out again. For 
three hours more the path leads through the woods, 
then the forest ends. Without trouble we arrive at 
the hut, towards midnight. 

The trip of the next day passes almost without inci- 
dent. We descend towards Lake Luitel, which is 
frozen and which you can cross on ski. While trying 
to jump some rocks, de Lestrac breaks one of his skis 
clean in two and is forced to descend on foot. 



GRENOBLE 119 

Roger also made a hasty trip to Albertville to see Mr. 
Chatelain and revisit his dear battalion : 



Grenoble, February 12, 191 3. 

I revisited Albertville in splendid v^eather. This 
small corner of the Alps has become for me a veritable 
little fatherland, which I see again with pleasure and 
which I leave always with regret. The mountains of 
Tarentaise, whose smallest paths I know, are so beau- 
tiful under their coat of snow. 

I envy my comrades of the Twenty-second who, for 
two weeks, have been in winter maneuvers. On the 
bulwarks and in the barracks I scarcely saw a familiar 
face. I met only young chasseurs, thick-set, broad- 
backed fellows, who will have to wait until next year, 
however, for the privilege and honor of making winter 
marches. 

I have heard only good of the young new com- 
mander. There is not a difficult reconnaissance in 
which he does not march at the head. The battalion 
set out, about fifteen days ago — some on ski, others on 
snowshoes, weighted with winter apparel as if for a 
polar expedition. 

Thanks to the fine weather, they were able to climb 
the principal passes of our sector. They crossed in 
four meters of snow the Valle des Glaciers, Bon- 
homme, and the Beaufort, Hauteluce, and Joly ranges. 
They are now leaving for Haute Savoie, and are going 
to make an eight day march in the Aravis. . . . 

I am furious at not having been able to participate 



I20 ROGER ALLIER 

in the winter marches. In this fine weather they ought 
to be marvelous. What a pity that they did not in- 
terrupt our courses to permit us to rejoin our bat- 
tahons ! 

At this time all the Alpine battalions are at maneuvers 
and the papers relate their exploits. 

It is on account of his love for sport, but also with the 
hope of seeing the triumph of the Twenty-second that he 
goes to attend the meet of ski-runners at Mont Revard : 

Grenoble, March 5, 1913. 

The military contest had attracted large numbers: 
in the train one heard people speak only of the great 
favorite Lieutenant Krug, perfect specimen of an alpin. 
The Twenty-second's team scored very great suc- 
cess. In the jumps, especially, they showed themselves 
clearly superior to the others. I must have told you 
already that we have among us this year the champion 
of France in jumping : rifleman Ancey, of Vallorcine. 

The most successful was the double jump: Ancey 
and Sergeant Guyot threw themselves into the air hold- 
ing each other by the hand, came down the one beside 
the other, and separated with two wide and graceful 
turns, one to the right, the other to the left. Sergeant 
Guyot is one of my good friends ; it is he who during 
one whole summer carried in his cap a tame lizard. 

Lieutenant Krug led me, still on skis, to the young 
commander of the Twenty-second. An introduction on 
skis is a quite original thing. The commander has a 



GRENOBLE 121 

charming personality ; he asked me many questions on 
our courses at Grenoble and on my studies. He told 
me that they regretted very much my departure from 
the Twenty-second as second lieutenant, that they had 
been very well satisfied with me, and asked me to pay 
him a visit when I wear my new stripes. 

... In changing trains at Chambery I found my- 
self face to face with a man who snatched off my cap 
and pulled my hair laughingly : it was my good friend 
Captain Boutle, who was shaking my hand joyously 
and asking me to come and see him soon. 



It Is necessary, however, that Roger become accus- 
tomed to the idea of not returning to the Twenty-second. 
Since he is obliged to separate himself from it, he dreams 
of being attached to the Eleventh. He has heard Captain 
Larchey spoken of as an alpin of a good sort and he de- 
sires to enter his company. His dream is realized. He 
announces to his parents, March 9th, that he has success- 
fully passed the examination of the officers' reserve and 
March 28th, that he is assigned to the Eleventh; he has 
to be at his post, at Annecy, April 7th. 



VII 

ANNECY 
(April, 1913-November, 191 3) 

Second Lieutenant of the Eleventh Battalion — First 
contact with the men — The role of the officer — The 
machine guns — The morale of the battalion — At Beau- 
fort and Areches — In Vanoise — From Haute Maurienne 
to Annecy — The Dent de Lanfon — Return to Paris. 



VII 

ANNECY 

Roger is so attached to the Twenty-second Battalion 
that he does not resign himself to going to the Eleventh 
without making a new visit to the former, which has been 
for him in a very special sense like a family : 

April i6, 1913. 

I arrived at Albertville, Saturday evening (April 
1 2th), the date of the traditional retreat by torchlight. 
The chasseurs of the Twenty-second have not lost the 
habit of marching quickly; the bugles play always with 
the same zeal. The good Mr. Chatelain received me, 
as always, with open arms. In spite of his white hair, 
he is younger and more active than ever. His work 
being well rooted in Bourgneuf, he is going to erect his 
tent at Gresy-sur-Isere and throw himself into a new 
evangelistic campaign. After worship, I made some 
hurried visits to my old officers. I went to present my- 
self to the new captain of the Fourth Company, and, 
finally, I lunched at Krug's. My train left at half past 
one. I cast one lingering look at the quarters, at the 
bulwark, at the mountains so often traversed last 
winter, and was off. 

125 



126 ROGER ALLIER 

The lieutenant most recently attached to the battalion 
is given the task of guiding the first steps of young 
officers assigned to the Eleventh and of aiding them in 
their procedure ; this is Second Lieutenant Rabaud, with 
whom, afterward, Roger will have the most friendly re- 
lations. Roger makes all the customary visits, looks for 
an apartment, finally discovers one, though not without 
difficulty, and entrusts it to the care of his orderly: 



April i6, 1913. 

Permit me to present my orderly to you. He is an 
Alpine type, gentle and conscientious. Ancey is his 
name. He is a native of Vallorcine. One could al- 
most say that he was born on skis — he always used 
them in going to school. He is a cousin of the famous 
ski-runner of the Twenty-second, who is the champion 
jumper of France. Ancey is the type of the stocky 
mountaineer, with a broad chest, shoulders which 
would please a cubist painter, and a good heavy face. 
When he comes downstairs he makes a frightful racket. 
He never speaks to me without saluting and standing 
at "attention," and is incapable of uttering the short- 
est sentence without saying two or three times, "My 
lieutenant." He is very devoted. I gave him such 
pleasure by saying that I used to know his country! 
It is so long since he has been there ! For, he told me 
sadly, in winter the railroad does not go beyond 
Chamonix. His eyes shone when I spoke to him of 
the mountain pastures of Emosson and Barberine, and 
of the pass of Balme where they send their cows. Fin- 



ANNECY 127 

haut, Salvan — all that is familiar ground to him; for, 
in addition to working in the fields, he has performed 
the task of porter. There befell him last winter a mis- 
fortune which he has related to me at length. He was 
a member of the winter detachment at the Ruined Re- 
doubt. In the course of a reconnaissance the little 
troop was overtaken by bad weather and both his feet 
were frozen. They brought him down to Seez and 
after energetic treatment succeeded in reviving him. 
He walks today as if nothing had happened. This ac- 
cident won for him the stripes of a chasseur of the first 
class. On one of his sleeves he wears, besides, a "hunt- 
ing horn" won in a shooting contest last year. Not 
everybody has an orderly with such trimmings. 



Roger would have wished to be attached to Captain 
Larchey's company. The latter would gladly have taken 
him with him. But his list of officers was full and the 
newcomer was assigned to the Second Company, com- 
manded by Captain Blanc-Coquand. The lieutenant of 
the company is busy taking care of a sprain he got in the 
winter maneuvers. He goes, therefore, very little to the 
exercises. Roger had anticipated responsibility. He gets 
it at once, more of it than he expected. During whole 
days he is the only officer in the company : 

Same date. 

It is delightful, when merely presiding at target 
practice, to criticize the theories given by the under- 
officers, to question the non-coms, or to give the com- 



128 ROGER ALLIER 

pany a lesson in bayonet fencing, in boxing, or in gym- 
nastics. But what is less funny, is to have to command 
the company in a maneuver in double action, a thing 
which has happened to me twice. One has the com- 
mandant at one's back, one feels himself watched 
and his work picked to pieces, one feels small. 

My first contact with the men of my company was 
abrupt ; it happened last Tuesday. This was the manner 
of it. Monday evening, after a day of details and 
official visits, I went to bed very gladly. At two 
o'clock in the morning, a great racket at my door. 
"My lieutenant, the alarm has been sounded!" Good! 
Let us equip ourself — revolver, glasses, cap, Tyrolean 
knapsack, and away. . . . The battalion leaves 
Annecy in the deepest silence for an unknown destina- 
tion. We take the road which follows the west bank 
of the lake. At the first halt, day is beginning to dawn 
and orders come. It has been learned in the night that 
the enemy troops, represented by the Twenty-second, 
have descended by the valley of Beaufort and are oc- 
cupying the valley of the Arly, between Ugine and 
Albertville. The Eleventh Battalion of alpins is going 
to meet them. . . . The maneuver lasted until two 
o'clock in the afternoon, in the pastures of that im- 
mense forest of Doussard which you know by repute ; 
it is there that a few bears still remain. At the end of 
the maneuvers, after the criticism, the two battalions 
joined and fraternized. A grand halt took place in 
the clearing of the forest in the midst of a snowed-in 
circus. The picture was magnificent. The chasseurs 



ANNECY 129 

were cooking their food between two rocks, while the 
officers of the two battaHons were eating on the ground. 
The buglers of the two battalions united and played 
several pieces; after which, the two battalions separ- 
ated, the one to go up to the saddle of Tamie, the other 
to go down again to Annecy, following the other shore 
of the lake. We arrived at Annecy at eight o'clock in 
the evening, without any weariness, although the 
march had been fifty-five kilometers and the equipment 
complete. 

That is how I made the acquaintance of my men. 
The next day we began again. 

Roger has two predominating desires. The first is 
not to prove inferior, in the necessary exercises, to any 
one of the men he commands : 

Same date. 

Every morning I practice marching at double time 
with some picked chasseurs who form part of the 
group of "mountain scouts." There are in the 
Eleventh ten of them to a company, all armed with ski- 
stavs and trained in particularly rapid marching and 
the most difficult reconnaissances in high mountains. 
At this time this is how we proceed. We put on our 
canvas shoes and take our mountain shoes in a bag 
which is slung over our shoulders. After a ten min- 
utes' run we arrive beneath the steepest slope of the 
Semnoz, at the foot of a sort of path in the rocks. 
Quickly we put on our shoes, scale the rocks, go down a 



I30 ROGER ALLIER 

gulley at full speed, put on our canvas shoes again, and 
return to the quarters in the least time possible. This 
half hour of action develops muscles and lungs. . . . 
In addition to this training, I have volunteered to go 
out every Thursday with the scouts. They are accom- 
panied by three experienced officers, always the same. 

His second wish is to render himself useful to his men 
and to assist them to their complete development : 

In the afternoon, I gave the chasseurs and the non- 
commissioned officers of the company a talk on old- 
age pensions for workingmen and methods of coopera- 
tion between employer and employes, I am planning 
to give a talk each week. The captain has agreed. 
That will mean work. 

Such application speedily brings its moral reward : 

Annecy, May i, 1913. 

My captain has just showed me a mark of confidence 
by commanding me to lead the company on a march in 
the mountains once a week. Besides, in many other 
exercises, he has given me free rein. Each week, there- 
fore, we take ropes and stavs, and go out for gymnastic 
exercises on the perpendicular wooded sides of Semnoz 
— scaling the rocks, making rapid marches through the 
woods, the ditches, and the brambles, and descending 
the rocks with the aid of pine tree trunks. 

For me this is a quite new pleasure. Last year, as a 



ANNECY 131 

private of the chasseurs, I was only one segment of 
each of those long serpents which wound around the 
sides of the mountain. Now, I am the guide, who 
seeks out the paths, who whistles to halt or to resume 
the march. It is no easy task to lead more than a 
hundred chasseurs through the difficult places. 

After being for more than a year a private chasseur 
or a non-commissioned officer, it takes him some time at 
first to accustom himself to this new regimen. He feels, 
with an extraordinary freshness of impression, those 
things to which he formerly paid no attention : 

Same date. 

My orderly continues to look after my apartment 
with maternal care. Sword, equipment, uniform — all 
is brushed, polished, put in order. Each evening he 
brings me cakes and fresh milk. My little chafing dish 
is all ready. When I get up, I have only to strike a 
match. The proper amount of cocoa and sugar is in 
the cup and all I have to do is to put in the hot milk. 
In case of an alarm, at two or three in the morning, 
nothing is so good as to absorb a bowl of steaming 
cocoa. 

What a changed life ! Comfort is made up of a 
multitude of little things which, aken separately, pass 
unnoticed, and of which the private chasseur is de- 
prived. Thus, I have completely lost the habit of that 
traditional act which consists in leaving one's boots 
under the kitchen table each evening. You will find 



132 ROGER ALLIER 

that nothing, but it is symboHc, and added to many 
other little things, it transforms existence. That per- 
mits me to appreciate doubly the life of intensive train- 
ing which we lead. There is only one shadow in the 
picture. The reveille seems to me more harsh since I 
have been an officer. We depart on the run at four 
or five o'clock and that is hard, one must admit, when 
one feels so comfortable at home. 

But he is not one of those whom comfort prevents from 
seeing anything else : 

Same date. 

The material pleasures of an officer's lot are sup- 
plemented for me by great satisfaction from the moral 
point of view. 

Mott would say, clenching his fist, that there is no 
privilege without responsibility. An officer can be a 
true inspirer of men. That is true, especially, of an 
officer of the alpins, if he takes seriously his duties 
toward his "men." How many times, in the discus- 
sions at the circle or elsewhere, have I heard students 
complaining of the difficulty that they have in reach- 
ing manual laborers, uneducated folk, farmers! It 
seems to me that a unique opportunity presents itself 
to us. Next year, the Alpine companies will comprise 
230 men each — what a splendid field for work ! Two 
hundred and thirty men who must not only be trans- 
formed into warriors from the physical point of view, 
but who must also be disciplined mentally, tempered in 



ANNECY 133 

soul, and fitted for future citizenship ! But I perceive 
that I am falling into a lay sermon, and permitting my- 
self to paraphrase General Lyautey. 

That which is certain, however, is that if we Alpine 
officers do not succeed in leaving an imprint, in exert- 
ing a moral influence, nobody will ever succeed. Our 
life of simplicity and toil is of a nature to make the 
contact so easy ! 

It is this sentiment of a mission to fulfil, or more 
modestly, of a useful role to play, that has aided me to 
come to look upon my three years' service, first as no 
very painful sacrifice, then, more and more, as some- 
thing providential. 

That does not mean that, in a day, one can gain the 
affection of his subordinates, their confidence, to such 
an extent as to exercise a moral influence over them. I 
think even General Lyautey exaggerates when he talks 
of an officer's knowing, one by one, all the men of his 
company — their antecedents, their aptitudes, their 
ambitions ! I am only at the beginning. It is necessary 
to begin with small things. I try to engrave on my 
memory the names and faces. I have commenced with 
the non-commissioned officers, taking advantage of a 
quiz to which I was ordered to subject them about fif- 
teen days ago. Then, it was the turn of the chasseurs. 
Naturally, I discounted considerably the judgments 
of the non-commissioned officers in regard to them. I 
know what they are worth. 

At maneuvers, I am perhaps excessively severe. I 
have, in commanding, a harshness which I have not 



134 ROGER ALLIER 

succeeded in moderating. A "snap of the jaw" occa- 
sionally escapes me. But I do all I can to render the 
exercises interesting and alive, and to avoid monotony. 

In the gymnastic drill, I take off my coat and, like 
every self-respecting alpin officer, am the first to climb 
over the wall of assault. You should see the rivalry! 
In boxing, I have a horror of the fastidious and su- 
perfluous motions so dear to the non-commissioned 
officers. In place of losing my time in long talks to 
explain parrying, feints, or thrusts, I take off my sword 
and coat and I give blows with my fist or kicks with 
my feet . . . or I take them. Is it a question of 
putting up the tents or of constructing shelters of 
branches to pass the night in the open ? I call a speed 
contest and victory goes to him who "cleans up" first. 
Then, I make the whole company lie down under the 
tents. One hears sonorous snores. I place sentinels 
around the camp, I feign an attack and in the flash of 
an eye, the company is all equipped and ready for 
the combat . . . and thus in the same way with all 
the exercises. No dryness or monotony. Animation, 
always ! 

I continue to give the company a talk each week, 
which means no little work. I have just delivered two 
lectures on Japanese procedure in battle. I had as- 
sembled a number of reports of unusual observations 
by eye witnesses in Manchuria. 



He has already assumed much care. He takes a little 
more on himself : 



ANNECY 135 

Same date. 

I am going to specialize further and become more of 
an alpin than ever. Here is the great news : I took ad- 
vantage of the return from a long march to express to 
the commander my desire to receive the command of a 
section of machine gunners. He has accepted me as a 
volunteer and has decided that I shall take a three or 
four months' course of instruction under the direction 
of the lieutenant gunner of the battalion. In the next 
Alpine maneuvers, therefore, you will see me file by 
with my mules. 

By the way, I forgot to tell you that our last marches 
had furnished me an opportunity to make the acquaint- 
ance of my mule. He is called "Valaisan." He is a 
little mule, very gentle, and has a kind look which 
surely denotes an open mind. On one side he carries 
my canteen, and on the other the material for officers' 
mess. 



It is understood that this course of training in machine 
gunnery does not diminish in any way his duties to his 
company. He simply carries at the same time both his 
duties and his course. One may imagine the amazing 
complexity which all that produces in his existence. 

In the meantime, he has found in the Thirtieth Infantry 
Regiment quartered in the village, an old comrade from 
Paris, Henri Westphal, who is a sergeant, and his brother, 
Frederic. He met them for the first time in 1907, at 
Sainte-Croix, at the Swiss Christian Student Conference. 
He sees them often, and trembles at the reading of the 
letters, palpitating with emotion, which their father 



136 ROGER ALLIER 

writes them after coming back from a visit to Palestine. 
He makes with them the acquaintance of Pastor Noyer, 
and longs to make that of Pastor Ullern, of whom he 
heard so much at Albertville and to whom his friends 
promise to present him. 

There take place at this time in two regiments of 
France regrettable incidents which it is useless to recall 
here. Roger speaks of the morale which he recognizes 
in his battalion : 

Annecy, May 2.'j, 1913. 

The spirit is excellent. The officers, sharing the 
tasks and hardships of the men, sleeping with them in 
the open air, can exert much influence. Certain cap- 
tains, like Larchey, are adored. Much is done in the 
battalion to raise the intellectual level of the men. 
Besides the talks b}^ the officers in the companies, there 
is one each week addressed to the whole battalion. It 
is delivered in the new quarters, in the immense fenc- 
ing hall. The non-commissioned officers are obliged to 
be present, corporals and student-corporals alike. 
All the chasseurs are invited. The hall Is always 
crowded; there are chasseurs perched even on the 
windows. Out of courtesy to the speaker all the 
officers attend. 

The subjects are historical or geographical and gen- 
erally military; thus, since my arrival, I have heard a 
talk by Captain Larchey on Alsace, another on the 
German artillery as compared with the French, still 
another on the defense of the Alpine frontier between 
the upper valley of the Ubaye and the Mediterranean, 



ANNECY 137 

another on the history of the Eastern Question, The 
commandant, who presides at these conferences, gen- 
erally makes a few concluding remarks. He speaks 
extremely easily and elegantly, and knows admir- 
ably how to summarize a subject, and make apt gener- 
alizations from it. One always awaits with interest 
this synthesis "a la Charles Gide" ; it is clear and 
French. 

Fifteen days ago a lieutenant, who has traveled long 
in the Orient and whose rank as a French officer on a 
mission had permitted him to see many things that 
others do not see, described to us in a picturesque 
fashion Constantinople and the old Turkish Empire. 
I almost thought I heard you speaking, when he was 
describing to us Stamboul, the Golden Horn, the Galata 
Bridge, Selamlik, the shores of the Bosphorus, the 
Princes' Islands, and Bebek. He told us unbelievable 
details of the Turkish corruption, in the army, in the 
navy, everywhere. . . . 

As a logical sequel to this talk. Lieutenant Morel- 
Delville, who commands the platoon of the Mountain 
Scouts, told us last Tuesday of the Turkish disasters 
in the last Thracian campaign. 

The commandant then rose, and, by way of conclu- 
sion, brought out the relation of cause and effect which 
exists between the recoil against German influence, due 
to the progress of the Slavic elements in the Orient, 
and the new German armaments. To give point to the 
lecture and to correct certain exaggerations of the 
press, he showed in what measure these armaments 



138 ROGER ALLIER 

were directed against us and wherein the situation was 
serious for France. He added that he was counting 
on all the chasseurs to consent, in full understanding 
of the cause, to a sacrifice recognized as necessary in 
the general interest; for it is much easier to be brave 
in the frenzy of a battle than modestly in time of peace 
to do one's duty during long weeks or months. At 
last, in a voice of emotion, he gave an example of the 
little Balkan States, bending for five hundred years 
under the Turkish yoke, but determined to maintain 
intact their individuality, their race, their language, 
their customs, and their religion. And he drew a 
parallel between these people who have known how to 
wait five centuries before freeing themselves, and 
Alsace, which was snatched from France only forty- 
two years ago. One felt a wave of emotion pass 
through the hall. There is a man who holds his battal- 
ion in his hand. 

As for me, I am initiating myself more and more in 
the use of those marvelously precise instruments, our 
machine guns. For I must be thoroughly acquainted 
with every possible cause of jamming, and this involves 
taking to pieces a mechanism more complicated than 
that of a watch. The whole process of going into 
battery is accomplished with astonishing rapidity. In 
thirty seconds at the most, the piece is ready for action. 
The operation is so nicely apportioned that, in the 
wink of an eye, the gun is taken off the mules' backs, 
fastened to the earth, and aimed; while the officer 
armed with his glasses commands the rate of fire and 



ANNECY 139 

the elevation, the loaders spring to the munition cases 
and are ready to serve, and the firers are seated behind 
their pieces, ready to release the trigger. In the mean- 
time by the aid of his instrument the range-finder has 
learned the exact distance of the enemy, at about 
twenty-five meters. All that takes thirty seconds; we 
shall do it in twenty-five seconds even. 

On the average, two half days of the week are 
devoted to shooting. I have taken great pleasure in 
personally manning a gun ; the fire is so accurate that 
I have succeeded in making a score of one hundred 
per cent. 

I busy myself much also with the mules, those faith- 
ful companions of our Alpine circuits. I help with the 
grooming and feeding. I have familiarized myself 
with the details of their care and with the precautions 
necessary to avoid injury to them. Lieutenant Nor- 
mand, under whose direction I work, is an old alpin 
who has made many difficult passages and gives me 
precious advice. He knows all the tricks of the trade, 
in the passage of difficult peaks, in the descent in the 
snow, and in other situations. 

The battalion crosses all the heights which surround 
Annecy, and there are constant transports of admiration 
and joy : 

Annecy, June i, 191 3. 

I am still enchanted with the march which we made 
last Thursday to Parmelan. We set out at two o'clock 
in the morning and returned at five in the evening. 



140 ROGER ALLIER 

It was splendid weather but hot ! . . . The chasseurs 
were loaded down like mules, and I thought that the 
battalion would rest on the way. But there was not 
a laggard. 

Viewed from the valley, Parmelan appears inac- 
cessible on all sides. Eugene Sue, who lived in a villa 
at the edge of the lake, likens it to a fortress built by 
Titans. Its gently sloping sides are covered with for- 
ests of tall pines; then vegetation stops, you traverse 
steep mountain pastures and arrive at the base of a 
vertical wall. It is there that our fifty mules are 
left, while the battalion takes to the rocks. There is 
no really difficult passage; everywhere one finds steps 
or iron cables. It is the first time that I have made a 
climb with the whole battalion. Generally, a recon- 
naissance of this sort is made by detached companies. 
The Indian file was of a seemingly impossible length; 
as far as the eye could see, there were packs and little 
white breeches, winding in the sun over the dark 
green pastures or in the midst of the rocks. When the 
first troops had arrived at the summit, the battalion 
was still zigzagging in the peaks of the "Grand Mon- 
toir," like a little army of busy ants, hanging on to the 
rough projections of the rock. 

In two hours, the summit of this gigantic limestone 
pedestal is reached and discloses two pictures of a 
striking contrast in form and color : on one side, as far 
as the Saleve, verdant valleys and lakes of an intense 
blue, Leman, Annecy Lake, and Bourget ; on the other, 
a sea of grey rocks, bare and jagged, which form the 



ANNECY 141 

upper part of the Parmelan. These are the lapiaz, very- 
dangerous labyrinths of hmestone. The scout platoon, 
which passed by the neck of Pertuis and was to rejoin 
us at the summit, wandered a long time in the midst 
of those crevasses and the rounded potholes which 
recall those of Lucerne. There are ice-paved caverns as 
much as eight hundred meters deep. In the wooded 
cavities one finds many rhododendrons. They are not 
yet in flower. 

From the topmost point one would say he was look- 
ing out upon a strange sea of motionless waves, dom- 
inated by a chain of glaciers. 

In the direction of Valais, one discerns the Dia- 
blerets, Wildhorn, the Dent du Midi, Tour Salliere, 
and the peak of Tanneverge, then Mont Blanc with 
all its peaks standing out clearly; the glaciers of Pourri, 
of Grande Casse, of Vanoise; the Grivola and Grand 
Paradis. In the distance, the three symmetrical points 
of the Aiguilles d'Arve, Belledonne, Pelvoux, and the 
Ecrins. All this scene was bathed in sunlight. It was 
marvelous. 

In this great silence, our seven hunting horns 
mingled in playing "Nimrod" and "The Passage of the 
Grand Stag" ; these are the two favorite airs. In the 
quiet atmosphere, this calm music, reechoed by the 
mountain, had in it something of the celestial. 



Then, there are the very complicated maneuvers made 
by the battalion in the regions of Beaufort and Areches. 
Roger grows more and more enthusiastic: 



142 ROGER ALLIER 



July 9, 1913. 



Never have I been so happy to be an alpin. Here, 
one does not feel overwhelmed as in the Chapieux, in 
a chaos of mountains, austere and bare. The sides of 
the valleys are covered with great pine forests. One 
would not think oneself in the "high mountains" did 
not the glaciers of Mont Blanc shine in the distance. 
Here, we are truly in the Alps, in the open pastures 
covered with myriads of flowers. There is absolute 
quiet. We are in a bath of light and sun and our faces 
are tanned by the wind and the cold. These pastures 
are immense. They feed the flocks of three valleys — 
Beaufort, Areches, and Hauteluce. From morning to 
evening, one hears the tinkling of their bells. The 
view is cut off at the first pines, whose branches are 
stunted and twisted by the frost of winter. Then, 
there is the bluish abyss of the valleys. The cottages 
are only modest shelters with loosely joined frames. 
To render them a little more habitable we have 
papered the interior with the canvas of our tents. The 
cantonments compete in fastidiousness and neatness. 
To picture these, imagine a barn divided into two com- 
partments. On one side is the straw to sleep on. On 
the other side the floor is carefully swept, and more or 
less skilfully washed; the one is designed for eight 
men, the other for hunting horns and such things. 
... The packs, neatly assembled, are carefully ar- 
ranged on some boards, of which an amateur carpenter 
has made a set of shelves. The well-greased boots are 



ANNECY 143 

placed in a row, in readiness for inspection, to which 
they are subjected every two or three days, that not a 
spike may be missing— and in our marches we often 
lose one! The guns are carefully stacked in a rack. 
Each chasseur has fastened his iron-tipped stick or ski- 
stav between the beams to make a hook and there hangs 
his equipment. At the door are suspended the badge of 
the section, a folding lantern, and a bucket always filled 
with water in case of fire. Generally, a wooden 
veranda surrounds the cottage, and there, sheltered 
under the great roof, the linen washed in the stream 
hangs drying. Everything is so well ordered that one 
could wish to be able to stay here for a long time. 

Roger's letters are then like a journal of the march. 
He notes in them, day by day, his incessant marches in all 
directions, from Beaufort where the Doron leaps in cas- 
cades to Cormet d'Areches where the snow, in the middle 
of July, welcomes the battalion with the whistling of 
tempests, to the ancient capital of the Centrones, Aime, 
where stones engraved with Roman inscriptions are em- 
bedded in the walls of modern farm buildings, to Peisey 
at the foot of Mont Pourri, and from there, by true 
Alpine jumps, to Ugine, to the passes of Joly and of the 
Bonhomme, to the Aiguille de Roselette, the lake of 
Girotte, and the gorges of Roselend. 

These are not marches of physical training merely : 

July 9, 1913. 
Last Friday was for the battalion a day of rest. I 



144 ROGER ALLIER 

took a piece of chalk and, sketching on the beams of a 
cottage, I deHvered to my company from the height of 
a balcony a lecture on the defensive organization of 
Glacier Valley and of the Beaufort range. 

July 14, 1913. 

We are going to be able to leave the Beaufort range. 
Thanks to our reconnaissances and our tours of the 
horizon, we know all the passes. Certain paths, con- 
structed by the alpins, are known only to them; they 
are not marked on the map of the General Staff, but 
only on private maps of the sector, which are made and 
corrected by the Alpine officers and are in their hands 
only. They are maps in color, remarkable for their 
clearness, in spite of the great minutiss of detail. The 
faintest trace of a path, the smallest cottage, is indi- 
cated. The design of the ridges permits one to know 
whether they are passable. I never use any other map 
during our marches. 

He is not satisfied merely to use the maps ; he assists in 
revising them : 

Peisey, July 17, 1913. 

Good-by to the radiant days of Areches! We 
packed our baggage Tuesday morning under a beating 
rain. A family staying in the country secured some 
mules to follow us as far as the pass. They contented 
themselves with wishing us good courage. At 200 
meters above Areches it was snowing. I had gone 



ANNECY 145 

ahead with some sappers to prepare a passage for the 
mules; then I marched in the lead with the command- 
ant to guide the battalion. At 2,000 meters it was 
snowing and hailing so heavily that we could see no 
farther behind than about twenty chasseurs. The rest 
were invisible. Below us in the winding path we heard 
them talking, but we saw nothing. 

Here we have been at Peisey, since yesterday. We 
shall leave next Monday. The battalion is to proceed 
in small detachments from the valley of Peisey, at the 
foot of Pourri, all the way to Notre Dame du Pre, on 
the slopes of Jovet. Our program is very full. We 
are to revise our "guide of the sector" for the region 
comprised between the upper Tarentaise and the valley 
of Peisey. 

Mountain warfare presupposes a perfect knowledge 
of the smallest passes through our ranges. A little 
ridge, a hazardous pass, a glacier might permit a few 
detachments of alpins to outflank the enemy, to make 
a surprise attack, to harass from the rear while starv- 
ing him, taking away by hard blows of the fist his con- 
voys of food or munitions. It is the species of war 
that is waged by small detachments. Thus, each Alpine 
group keeps on perfecting the map of its sector. 
Naturally, the information found there is possessed 
only by the officers. The secret is absolute. 

Last summer was exceptional because of the fever 
which caused us to leave Upper Savoy. This year the 
work has been apportioned among the Eleventh, the 
Thirteenth, and the Twenty-second. The Alpine 



146 ROGER ALLIER 

batteries know the passes through which cannon may- 
be transported. In each battalion, the companies have 
their assigned duties, and in each company the officers 
have special reconnaissances, their reports to submit, 
and their outline of itinerary to draw. It is no sinecure. 
A multitude of questions must be answered : Is such a 
pass practicable in every season? In summer only? 
From what date to what date? For Alpinists only? 
For men fully accoutered ? For mules ? For mountain 
artillery? Describe the route followed. Note the 
length of time consumed by the passage, the climb, and 
the descent. Draw a map on a large scale indicating 
all the cottages passed, the chapels, the crosses capable 
of serving as landmarks in winter, the gradient, the 
paths, the brooks, the springs, the watering places. At 
such a cottage, at such a time of year, are there milk, 
fodder, water, cattle ? Is there wood, or is it necessary 
to carry it on one's knapsack? In winter, is it neces- 
sary to follow another route ? Discover the important 
points where one might place signal posts, the spots 
most suitable for the establishment of telephonic or 
telegraphic communication with the valleys, etc., etc. 
The first company must, in forty-eight hours, construct 
a telephone system connecting all the hamlets of the 
valley of Peisey. 

For four days, therefore, I shall set out early with 
a platoon. We shall eat where we can, and in the even- 
ing, I shall do my editing of data collected. Happily, 
the weather has cleared since morning, though it is still 
very cold. 



ANNECY 147 

I began today by an easy reconnaissance at the foot 
of Aiguille Grive. Tomorrow, it will be more serious. 
I am to climb the neck of Mont Pourri. As we are to 
reach for the first time this summer an altitude of more 
than 3,000 meters, I shall try out the young chasseurs 
and baptize them alpins as I was baptized last year. 

In what state shall we find the glaciers? Probably 
covered with fresh soft snow. I should laugh if, in 
the month of July, the company had to put on their 
snowshoes. Some days ago, the Twenty-second, go- 
ing to Tignes, crossed this chain in three groups : some 
followed the pass of Tourne; others, the passes of 
Sache; the remainder, the majority of the battalion, 
with its mules and guns, the pass of Palet. There was 
a meter of soft snow. The mules had to be entirely 
unloaded, and their loads, in this case the guns, car- 
ried on the men's backs for a whole hour. The bat- 
talion did not arrive at Tignes until four o'clock in the 
afternoon. 



The battalion sets out for Vanoise, however. The 
marches become more and more epic. Entire companies 
pass over the huge glacier of the saddle of Pourri and 
that of the pass of the Grande Casse, where the danger 
of the fall of a serac is so imminent that, fastened to one 
another by ropes, the men march at intervals of fifty 
meters, in order that in case of accident, one only shall 
run the risk of being involved. There follow recon- 
naissances to Grande Motte, to Grande Forclaz, to the 
glacier of Lepenna, to the Dome of Chasseforet, to the 
pass of Tourne, and to Selonge. Then begin unforeseen 



148 ROGER ALLIER 

maneuvers and the battalion is put to traversing, by 
forced marches, the whole maze of mountains, passes, 
neves, and glaciers which, for so many weeks, they have 
been exploring in every direction. The misfortune is that 
all this takes place in bad weather. The downpours are 
like floods, and accompanied usually by hail. In only 
slightly higher altitudes there were tremendous snow- 
falls. 

Val d'Isere, July 30, 191 3. 

Since the beginning of July, so much snow has 
fallen that altitudes of 2,600 meters are difficult to 
pass with the mules. Those of 2,800 are impassable. 
By way of compensation, they are magnificent to see. 
I have made some photographs which one would think 
taken in the winter marches. 



Les Chapieux, August 14, 1913. 

Not an instant's abatement in the downpour! The 
path is a veritable torrent of mud. Captain Dechamps, 
who for fifteen years has explored the Alps, and whom 
nothing any longer astonishes, neither storm nor 
tempest, says he never has seen such a deluge of mud. 
In places, it is with difficulty that we can withdraw our 
feet; we go in up to our knees. The mules flounder 
with their loads. One of them makes a series of 
somersaults, end over end. They pick him up one hun- 
dred meters beyond, dead, or rather good only for the 
slaughter-house. His driver, hoping up to the last 
moment to hold him back, clings to him and falls with 



ANNECY 149 

him. He will be cited in the Order of the Battalion. 
He is carried to the hospital of Bourg-St.-Maurice, 
suffering terribly. 

It is there that Roger's orderly, "though a mountaineer 
of rare skill," is wounded and goes to join others in the 
same hospital. He is replaced by Bastide, "a brave little 
Cevenol," writes Roger, "in whom I have every con- 
fidence." 

It falls to the alpins to aid some good people who are 
traveling in those parts for their pleasure. 

Post at Chapieux, August 22, 191 3. 

At Mottets we replenish our supply of provisions 
and eat in haste in the jovial company of Captain 
Larchey, who is always sparkling with fun. When we 
leave the httle inn, it is dark night ; the storm is slowly 
coming up, but we have good hopes, for the Italian sky 
is still clear. We light a lantern, for the trail of the 
pass is not very clear and we have some mountain 
streams to cross. For an hour we climb, hastening our 
steps a little, for above us cries for help are resounding. 
Are they the cries of shepherds, or of travelers lost in 
the night ? 

The path leads us to the edge of a torrent. On the 
other bank, nine persons, of whom several are wild- 
eyed ladies, call to us, weeping in comical despair. 
The only plank by which one could cross has been 
swept away by the current, but it is lodged on two big 
rocks which we know well; it is necessary to jump 



ISO ROGER ALLIER 

from one to the other without letting oneself be 
affected by the darkness or by the noise of the cascade 
which breaks into foam below. We leap, after throw- 
ing to the other band our enormous packs. "Chasseurs 
alpins!" they exclaim, and they gaze at us with curi- 
osity, as if we were supernatural beings that haunt the 
mountains by night. 

We climb up to the cascade and pile rock on rock in 
the bed of the torrent. The ladies become calm and 
decide to pass over this improvised ford, vowing that 
they will never come there again. Thanks to one of 
our lanterns, the caravan arrives safely at Mottets but 
almost dead from fright. 

Now the moon lights the way for us. Our packs are 
heavy and the air is mild, the storm still coming on. 
At last here is the great cairn which marks the fron- 
tier ! At the right, another silhouette is profiled, mo- 
tionless. Then a voice stops us ; I cry in French : "We 
are officers of the alpins." The Italian stands at atten- 
tion and salutes, then goes off without a word, pacing 
along the frontier. 



After their own maneuvers, the alpins go to take part 
in those of the army corps, in the Department of Ain. 
The bad weather accompanies them there and renders 
very difficult, in spite of their zeal, the tactics of the plain, 
less familiar to them than those of the mountains. 

The weeks pass. The hour for the return to Paris 
approaches. Roger asks himself how he can live in that 
great city where the streets bear so little likeness to 
mountain paths. He thinks also of the duties which 



ANNECY 151 

await him there. How shall he resume life as a student? 
With what practical work shall he busy himself ? Shall 
he take up his old group at the Sunday school ? It seems 
to him that other duties will keep him busy, and yet it will 
be painful for him to have to refuse a service to the 
church he loves. He writes to his father : 

Annecy, October 12, 19 13. 

I am convinced that the Separation has left undi- 
minished the importance of the free churches and 
that it is necessary more than ever to insist on the prin- 
ciple of the personal profession of faith, which is the 
raison d'etre of these churches. Then, what am I to 
do ? I should not like to feel that I was evading a duty, 
and a duty it seems to be that confronts me here, since 
there is to be a shortage of three monitors at one time. 
I am going to think it over a little longer. 

He wrote, several days later, to his pastor, Mr. Bonnet, 
as follows: 

October 20, 191 3. 

As my father must have told you, I have asked to 
spend one more winter with the alpins; I have the firm 
hope, though not the certainty, that this request will 
be favorably received. In that case, I shall winter in 
Upper Tarentaise with a detachment of ski-runners 
and shall not return to Paris before the first of March. 
I shall therefore have to give up taking charge of a 
group at the Sunday school, but I cannot do so with- 



152 ROGER ALLIER 

out telling you how deeply I am touched by your con- 
fidence. It is not without regret that I decline your 
offer, considering all the memories that attach me to the 
Luxembourg Sunday school. But by March the year 
will already be far advanced and of course you cannot 
go without a monitor for so long a time. 

On the other hand, becoming a student again, I shall 
perhaps have to busy myself with the Federation, and 
I cannot plan far ahead. I do not dare to make an en- 
gagement. Excuse my indecision and believe that I 
am much attached to the free churches and in partic- 
ular to the Luxembourg church, which is entitled to 
the utmost gratitude on my part. 

Roger had hoped for a while to be able to stay at least 
six months longer in the battalion and thus to take ad- 
vantage of the new military law which, in cases similar to 
his, extended the age limit for candidacy for the Conseil 
d'Etat. This interpretation of the law not having ap- 
peared accurate, he had to resign himself to ending his 
service in the middle of November. But, while prepar- 
ing to return to Paris, he made his plans to escape from 
there as soon as possible : 

October 26, 19 13. 

In fifteen days, I shall be in Paris and set to work 
with a mad ardor. I shall immerse myself completely 
in that judicial atmosphere to which my intellectual 
lungs are so unaccustomed. That will be somewhat 
suffocating at first. 

Commander Gamelin has strongly urged that I 



ANNECY 153 

make the winter marches as a ski-runner. Not occupy- 
ing Chapieux in winter, the Eleventh is opening a post 
at Tignes. It will be commanded by Lieutenant Bey- 
net, with whom I am on excellent terms and who 
passed the whole of last winter at the Redoubt. 
Beynet is saving a place for me at the post. We shall 
have excellent ski-runners, for we have brought in a 
number of carefully selected Chamoniards. Beynet 
agrees to train me very rapidly and to have me take 
part in the long marches of the detachment in Iseran 
and Vanoise. I am madly eager to cross on skis, at a 
temperature of thirty below, the glaciers which I tra- 
versed with the battalion last summer. Since Beynet, 
Lobligeois, and many other lieutenants have told me 
of their winterings, I am haunted with the desire to 
know a little of this life of the "Posts of the Snows." 
All return enthusiasts and never weary of relating their 
adventures, though it be for the twentieth time. 

How was he to take his leave of the Alps, if not by 
some good bold climb ? 

October 26, 19 13. 

To crown worthily our service as alpins, we, Mar- 
gerin and I, have just climbed the peak south of Lan- 
fon. Capdepon, who is probably the best climber we 
have in France, was one of the first to succeed in this 
ascent. He counts it among the most difficult that he 
knows. So we returned with blood on our hands, as 
formerly in the descent of the Trois Pucelles. We 



154 ROGER ALLIER 

were assisted by an article which Capdepon published 
in the Revue Alpine last spring. It was fine weather 
and thanks to our fifty-five meters of rope we did not 
have too great difficulty climbing the south face, and 
descending again by the opposite wall. When our boat 
left Talloires it was night and the lake was gleaming 
under a beautiful Milky Way. 

This meeting with the great mountains is not calculated 
to lessen his grief at leaving the Alps and all those whom 
he loves so much: 

November 3, 19 13. 

I have but one more week at Annecy. Never have 
I had such a vivid impression of the flight of time. 
Notwithstanding the pleasure I shall have in seeing you 
again so soon, I can not escape a feeling of apprehen- 
sion. Paris frightens me. 

November 6, 19 13. 

I shall be very sorry to leave this corps of officers, 
who consider me their equal and from whom I have 
never ceased to receive testimonies of confidence. I 
shall be especially sorry to separate from my company, 
which is very much attached to me — I have had many 
proofs of it — and to which I have been much devoted. 
A company of alpins is a true family. I have asked 
you for a little money, for I do not wish to leave so 
many fine fellows without offering them something. 



ANNECY 155 

These little acts have their importance; who knows in 
what circumstances we shall meet again ? Besides that, 
some chasseurs have just volunteered for service in 
Morocco. They are very poor and we gave them a 
little pocket money to lessen their wants. 



The hour of separation arrives at last, and Roger re- 
turns to Paris. 



VIII 

PARIS AND TIGNES 
(November, 19 13- July, 19 14) 

The "Rochassiers" — Family life — Music — Develop- 
ment of character — Social questions — League of Free 
Trade — The housing problem — The competitive examina- 
tion for the Conseil d'Etat — The "winter marches," 1914 
— At the "Post of Snows" — Christian student conference 
at Lyon — A march — The "Volunteers for Social Service" 
— Last climbs. 



VIII 
PARIS AND TIGNES 

Roger returned to Paris November lo, 1913. He had 
expected to experience some of the feelings of an ex- 
patriate, and it was in reality some time before he found 
the air of the city breathable ; he pretended to be stifling, 
wherever he went. It was in vain that he practiced 
chamber gymnastics at all hours and worked fervently at 
his 2ofri exerciser; the hateful anemia seemed ever- 
present to him. Finding some old alpins who like him- 
self complained of the heavy air of Paris, he decided to 
go with them and seek the steepest rocks in the forest of 
Fontainebleau, and to climb these in the most extravagant 
ways.i Alas, there are in the forest of Fontainebleau no 
splendid abysses over which one may lean, defying dizzi- 
ness. . . . 

Though he rose in revolt against city life, inveterate 
alpin that he was, Roger nevertheless succeeded in en- 
joying his new existence, or rather his return to that of 
former times. He had a real passion for family life. His 
great joy was to be with his people in a corner and say, 
"We are in a little nest." His grandmother wished to 
have him stay with her in the apartment above that of his 
parents, in a study admirably adapted to his needs, but 
he would not consent to that. From the beginning, he 

* Among these "Rochassiers" — that is the name which is given 
them among certain members of the Alpine Club — two were 
particularly intimate with Roger, Andre Jacquemart and Jacques 
Vehrlin. 



i6o ROGER ALLIER 

wished to share his father's study as he had done since 
infancy. His father and he had the habit of working 
together, almost facing each other. They would often 
mingle their researches and their meditations. If the son 
was wrestling with a problem of law or social science, it 
was rarely that he did not examine with his father the 
philosophical principles that this question brought into 
play. If his father was studying a question of psychol- 
ogy, individual or collective, he seldom failed to examine 
with his son the impact of this question on the existing 
laws or of the existing laws on this question. Both 
would often interrupt their work to indulge in what 
they called recreation, that is to say, a random conversa- 
tion on the men and events of the day, telling each other 
what they had heard said, trying to interpret events in the 
light of what was passing behind the scenes, sharing 
in common their hopes, their distastes, their admirations, 
their projects for championing such or such a cause. 
Their intimacy had become absolute. . . . And there 
was a like intimacy between Roger and his mother. In 
the evenings, when alone with her, he would begin long 
confidences on his plans for the future, or on the moral 
conflicts which he had to face during the years of ab- 
sence. It cannot be recalled that he ever entered the 
apartment without asking in the hall, 'Ts mother there? 
And father?" 

When his grandmother had offered him a study exactly 
adapted to his needs, his argument for refusing had been, 
"We could see one another and talk only at table!" He 
did not wish to lose a moment of family life. His keenest 
pleasure in the intermissions which he allowed himself 
in his work, was to go and sit by his mother in an ad- 
joining room and tell her stories of the faculty or the 
School of Political Sciences or show her photographs 
which he had brought back from Grenoble or Annecy; 



PARIS AND TIGNES i6i 

and often, at the recollection of a "good story," he would 
burst into peals of laughter in which one heard the reso- 
nance of a joy without reserve and caught the vibrations 
of a soul in which there was no concealment. These 
bursts of contagious laughter, almost childlike in its 
freshness, constantly interrupted his long conversations 
with his sisters or his young brother. Even after his 
military service, he did not require much urging to spend 
hours playing with his brother, installing a mechanical 
railroad and making clever combinations of rails and 
switches which furrowed the floors of several rooms in 
his grandmother's apartment. 

He had one passion, for music. He used to say that 
he would devote himself entirely to it if he did not feel 
called elsewhere by undeniable duties. While young — 
at the age of five to be precise — he could listen with a 
sort of fervor to sonatas which would have made many 
children and even many grown-ups yawn with weariness. 
The correctness of his ear, enabling him to distinguish 
the finest variations of sounds, seems to have counted for 
something in the gift that he had for learning foreign 
languages and especially for speaking them with a strik- 
ing purity of accent. When ten — he was in the sixth 
form — he commenced taking lessons on the violin. He 
gave himself to it with complete abandon. His other 
work did not leave him the time to develop into a true 
virtuoso, however. He never lost an opportunity to hear 
the compositions of the great masters. It was at the con- 
certs of the church of the Sorbonne, at those of the "So- 
ciety of J. S. Bach" or of the "Palestrina Society," that 
he found some of the deepest joys of his life. Having 
suffered the deprivation of these artistic pleasures during 
his miUtary service, he found in music after his return to 
civil life the powerful charm which alone, with the sole 
exception of family life, was capable of consoling him a 



i62 ROGER ALLIER 

little for having left the Alps. Unhappily, he had less 
time than ever to study music for himself. But one of 
his favorite relaxations after the rush of the week was, 
on Sunday, to play psalms and hymns on his violin to his 
sister's accompaniment on the piano, and it was rarely 
that these little religious concerts did not end with 
number 119 of the Collection of the Reformed Churches: 
the music is from Beethoven, and Roger found in this 
serene and spacious harmony a sovereign virtue of ap- 
peasement. 

His personality had developed. Without growing ex- 
clusive, his tastes had become fixed, his convictions were 
forming. A certain violence of disposition against which 
he had had to be on his guard since infancy, was gradu- 
ally changing into an increasing strength of will. While 
a child, he had very bitter fits of passion. But the crisis 
once passed, he accepted in advance the punishment which 
he knew he deserved and he used to go of his own ac- 
cord and put himself in the corner. Later, he used to go 
there before the outburst, when he felt one of his fits 
coming on, and he sometimes stayed nearly half an 
hour with his head against the wall. When they called 
him, judging the punishment sufficient, he used to refuse 
to come if he was still experiencing sensations of anger. 

A prey to all the perplexities of a scrupulous con- 
science, he hesitated long before taking sides in anything. 
But when he had made a decision with a knowledge of his 
grounds, he stuck to it. When he had seen his duty, 
nothing could prevent him from doing it.^ 

^We may cite here some lines from a letter addressed June 
6, 1916, to Roger's parents by Mrs. Henry CouUet: "I think I 
am fulfilling a pious duty and rendering homage to the memory 
of your dear son, dead for France, in making you acquainted 
with a recollection connected with him; his glorious end gives 
to the incident that I am going to tell you a particularly height- 
ened significance. A word, pronounced by him lightly, announced 



PARIS AND TIGNES 163 

He had a jealous wish for moral liberty, and nothing 
outraged him more than an effort to force the enlistment 
of souls. No influence was ever exerted over him by 
any save those of whom he was assured that they abso- 
lutely respected his conscience. He had also, however, 
a deep feeling for the necessity of collaboration for the 
attainment of any result whatever, and the solidarity 
gained through convergent efforts seemed to him to be a 
necessary condition of the whole social life. Hte was very 
severe towards the false individualism which is, at 
bottom, nothing but pride. And as he expressed volun- 
tarily his gratitude to all those who helped him in his 
study or suggested to him practical methods of work, 
certain ones might have thought that they had gained 
predominance over him, when in reality, though cooper- 
ating loyally with them, he had entirely reserved his own 
independence. 

He greatly loved wit, and a good joke delighted him 
for a long time. He had a very keen sense of ridicule, 
especially when it was provoked by somebody's more or 
less unconscious vanity. A natural gift for imitation, 
joined to that rapid perception of eccentricities, might 
have developed in him a certain satirical vein. But irony 
used to irritate him very promptly. This was due to the 
fact that he recognized in it when habitual an eccentricity 
worse than those against which it is directed, almost a 
mental disease, an egotistical prepossession arising from 
supreme satisfaction with oneself, a mania sometimes 
vicious in its eagerness to belittle all things. 

the disposition of his soul and comes today to honor his mem- 
ory : I am very sadly touched in telling you about it. Your dear 
boy was talking at the Chapelle de la rue Madame, while playing 
with my children, and discussing handwriting with my daughter. 
Marguerite. As he was asking her to examine his writing, she 
begged him to write a few words : He then wrote : 'I would 
do it again, if I had it to do.' " 



i64 ROGER ALLIER 

As sincerity was a passion with him, he practiced it 
himself and he presupposed it always in others. A lie 
in any form irritated him. Deeply hurt if he suspected 
that one did not have confidence in him, he himself placed 
confidence in men and things. He preferred to be de- 
ceived in the outcome of any transaction rather than to 
commit an injustice beforehand. He never permitted 
himself to apply to others at the outset sentiments or 
thoughts which he would have found unpleasant if ap- 
plied to himself. And he who detested nobody cherished a 
strong dislike for two categories of persons : those whose 
thoughts one never knows, whose affected silences, ex- 
pressionless looks, and enigmatical smiles reveal them as 
consciously intent on never giving out anything about 
themselves ; and those who, one knows immediately, think 
only evil of others. He had a horror of useless and 
wicked conversations which consist only in systematic 
disparagement and in which one speaks of another only to 
describe his physical weakness or to relate about his char- 
acter or his life some slanderous story. He reserved his 
judgments for cases which were worth the trouble; as 
he did not blunt his critical faculty in easy slanders or 
in small talk, it remained for him, when the others had 
exhausted their fund of petty criticism, to feel the most 
violent indignation against the offensive words that had 
been uttered and to take practically the contrary position. 

And from that came his enthusiasm, not for unnatural 
or fleeting emotions, but for natural and rational con- 
fidence, for a candid joy in finding good wherever 
there was any, for the effort to discover this good, 
which often brought with it its recompense, for willing- 
ness to adapt oneself to situations instead of protesting 
against them. He had, certainly, his disillusionments and 
he suffered because of them; and as he was of a very 
sensitive nature, he ran the risk of being discouraged. 



PARIS AND TIGNES 165 

But this result was averted by his conscious purpose to 
exercise confidence and to exert personal influence. The 
reserve force which he had not wasted in anemic criti- 
cisms and in paralyzing defiance used to rise from the 
depth of his nature, and he would go back to his task 
resolute, happy, and calm. 

After his return to Paris, he placed himself at the dis- 
position of Armand Kuntz, to be used as the latter should 
see fit in the most essential activities of the Student 
Association. He was one of the regular attendants at 
those intimate meetings, where, in meditation and prayer, 
a group of comrades consecrate themselves to "serve," 
in the complete sense of the word, in the diverse details 
of the life of the circle. 

He would have wished to see develop, among the stu- 
dents calling themselves Christians, a more sustained 
desire to work for social progress, for the constant 
amelioration of the material and moral situation of the 
working classes, for a solution of the struggle between 
classes. One may say of him that his interest did not 
flag for one instant, and he did not lose an opportunity 
to add to his knowledge of social phenomena. Having 
been invited to preside at the Young Men's Christian 
Association in Trevise Street at the opening of the com- 
mercial courses, he there delivered an address which 
greatly impressed his listeners. 

Thus brought into touch with men of industry and 
commerce, he was invited to attend the meetings of the 
Society of Political Economy. But that seemed to him 
too often restricted by somewhat ancient formulas. He 
found it more interesting to work with a group which 
had sprung from this Society, whose program met 
his personal needs most exactly, an organization called 
"The League of Free Trade." Besides, he used to 
see in this affiliation a means of meeting trained busi- 



i66 ROGER ALLIER 

ness men, of assisting at their discussions, of having first- 
hand documents at his disposal. He used to attend the 
meetings of the League with great pleasure. By reason 
of his youth and of his modesty — the two are not always 
seen together — he spoke there but little; he knew, how- 
ever, how to make himself esteemed : "I especially ap- 
preciated," wrote Mr. Daniel Bellet, secretary of the 
League and professor at the School of Political Sciences, 
in a letter of June 29, 1916, "his intelligence and his moral 
worth, and I was building great hopes that he might be 
able to help us bring liberty into the world." 

At the same time, he became a member of the "Interna- 
tional Association for the Legal Protection of Working 
People." He never missed one of these meetings and 
faithfully collected all facts, documents, or drafts of laws 
which could help him in forming a personal opinion on 
each practical question. 

The movement of "Social Christianity" had his open 
sympathy. He was particularly friendly with the Rev- 
erend Elie Gounelle : "I see him again," writes the latter, 
"our dear and noble Roger, so distinguished and so mod- 
est, with his gentle yet penetrating look, his kindly smile, 
his thoughtful and precise way of speaking, reflecting a 
strong and highly cultured soul. He always left with me 
a quite unique impression of grace and seriousness. I 
am very proud that he published in my review his first 
social "Study, on the university settlements of England, 
and I was hoping that he would one day be one of our 
co-workers and even one of our guides in social studies 
of Christian inspiration. The last time that I saw him 
was in the Luxembourg church after service. He was 
about to depart for his 1914 vacation and came to the foot 
of the pulpit, to make his adieus and to express to me a 
simple word of thanks — how precious for me, coming 
from him — for my modest preaching. I do not know 



PARIS AND TIGNES 167 

what he said to me, but yet his few words followed me. 
I do not know either what I said to him, but my wishes 
and my prayers followed him even up to the Father." 

Among the questions which most occupied his mind 
and disturbed his conscience, special mention should be 
made of the housing problem. His stay in the smms of 
London and his contact in Paris with some poor families 
whose children he visited, had opened his eyes to the 
close relation between immorahty and the lack of ele- 
mentary comfort and hygiene in too many of the workers' 
houses. But the problem had taken hold of him in all 
its phases. He did not view it from any exclusive and 
narrow angle of vision, looking to the construction of 
inexpensive houses as a sole remedy. He was studying 
plans of town extension, as found in English, American, 
and German theories and practices. 

There are in his papers numerous notes, which would 
be useful only to him, on the comparative legislation of 
the different countries on this question and on the tech- 
nical and artistic principles which these plans try to 
realize. He had, on this subject, endless discussions with 
his friend, Robert Schloesing, who dealt with it from the 
architectural viewpoint especially, while he busied him- 
self with the judicial and social side of the question. 
His joy was great when, on the initiative of Mr. 
Georges Risler, he was appointed a member of one of the 
study commissions of the Musee Social. 

In the midst of all these occupations, he set to work 
with ardor in preparation for the examination for the 
Conseil d'Etat, spending whole days in the library of the 
School of Political Sciences, interesting himself in each 
practical piece of work undertaken by his section, work- 
ing continually on exhaustive reports on questions of ad- 
ministrative law, and watching the most recent and most 
interesting decisions of the Conseil d'Etat on the weight- 



i68 ROGER ALLIER 

iest problems of the day. At the same time he followed 
with great care, at the Palais de Justice, the pleas of the 
lawyers before the Court of Appeal. Admitted to the 
bar July 5, 1910, he had had to interrupt his practice dur- 
ing his military service and had taken it up since his return 
to Paris. Several times he had had to plead. 

The time arrived, however, when, according to the 
promise he had made to Commander Gamelin, he had 
to take part in the winter marches of the battalion and 
climb to the poste des neiges at Tignes. He had thought, 
for a time, that he would have to leave his people again 
in December, 1913; his departure did not actually take 
place until January 20, 1914. Commander Gamelin had 
been replaced at the head of the battalion by Commander 
Augerd, whose welcome was most cordial. Before 
going up to Tarentaise, he had to make a six days' march 
with the detachment of ski-runners who were preceding 
the battalion. In spite of his zeal and his power of en- 
durance, Roger had occasion to realize the inadequacy of 
indoor gymnastics as a substitute for the intensive train- 
ing of the life of an alpin. 

Here are some extracts from letters in which he re- 
lated from day to day his winter marches : 

Flumet, January 21, 19 14 — 5 p. m. 

A few hasty lines before going to bed, for I am dead 
from fatigue. We set out at five o'clock in pitch dark- 
ness. Not a star in the sky. Is it going to be snowing 
in the pass of Aravis? No, only a heavy fog which 
will disappear at sunrise. Towards six o'clock the veil 
is parted and the sun makes the whole chain of Aravis 
gleam ; our valley is still plunged in shadow. The spec- 
tacle of this conflagration is fairy-like. 



PARIS AND TIGNES 169 

In three hours we arrive at Thones of the old arches 
and pretty church tower. We pass on without stop- 
ping ! I begin to doubt whether we shall ever stop. 

Beynet is tireless. He leads the march. D'Hestreux 
and I follow him, and behind us stretches out, end- 
lessly, the file of ski-runners, silent, intent, leaning 
over their staffs. We do not take off a shoe, and for 
hours we glide along without noise; not the least 
crunching of the snow; it is ravishing, but surely we 
are going too swiftly! At certain moments, I ask my- 
self whatever induced me to get into this scrape ! These 
Chamoniards have a wind and an endurance that are 
unbelievable. One hour after the departure, Beynet 
granted us a halt of two minutes to take off our jerseys. 
Yes! To take off our jerseys! In spite of the cold, 
about five degrees above zero,^ it is a real relief ! 
Hardly had we left Annecy when our moustaches were 
decorated with icicles. 

From Thones to Clusaz, the valley slopes gently. 
The forests are burdened with snow, a snow almost 
blue under a true Italian sky. All rejoice in anticipat- 
ing the sudden looming up of the Mont Blanc chain. 
That gives us courage. The Aravis are now of a blind- 
ing whiteness and from their summits, towers of lime- 
stone tapering to a point, hang icicles many of which 
are surely fifty or sixty meters in length. 

A few minutes of rest at Grand Bornand, and then 
we set out for Clusaz, the last village still accessible by 



* Fahrenheit. 



I70 ROGER ALLIER 

sledge; the gorge itself is impassable. Oh! the beau- 
tiful pictures that I could have taken ! But it is impos- 
sible to stop; it is necessary to follow, follow always, 
like a mad man. From Grand Bornand, not a stop! 
We reach the summit at noon, or rather, Beynet arrives 
there alone with two chasseurs. The others are climb- 
ing in echelons the final ascent of the pass. We are 
dying of hunger. 

The panorama of the Mont Blanc range is unbe- 
lievably clear. We could not wish for a finer day. 
The outline of the humps of the Dromadaire from here 
stands out clearly and sharply. It is the first time that 
I have seen it from this angle. 

At one o'clock we set out again and with dizzy speed 
descend the side of Flumet. And so ends my first day 
of winter marches! I am going to bed; for I do not 
know what I am writing. Excuse me if my sentences 
have neither head nor tail ! 

Naturally, I did not get out of this without a mas- 
terly sunburn. I am already scarlet. That is better 
than a frozen member. 

Flumet, January 23, 19 14. 
Friday morning, 4 o'clock. 

Heavy steps awaken me. It is my orderly, the ski- 
runner, Jaurdanney. How willingly one could rest in 
bed when it is four degrees below zero !^ My muscles 
are stiff from fatigue. But here under my window is a 

* Fahrenheit 



PARIS AND TIGNES 171 

bugle calling "Up, Chasseur ! Up, Chasseur !" These 
short sharp notes do not admit a reply. But it adds 
with a cruel irony, "If you do not wish to get up, pre- 
tend you are ill. If you are not found out, you will 
have four days more!" Up then, and let us attack 
once again the ever recurring problem of getting into 
one's boots. 

Horrible sight — my jug of water, which I had placed 
far away from the window near my bed to protect it 
from the cold, is frozen. Frozen also my towel, for I 
had used it yesterday evening and here it is stiff as tin. 
And my sponge . . . hard as a billiard ball ! So 
much the better! The toilet will be simplified. The 
Tibetans do not know our refinements — let us be Ti- 
betans! A little milk and steaming coffee, that is 
what reconciles you to existence. I am too tired to 
follow the ski-runners; a slow march on snowshoes 
will be sufficient for me today. 

A toot of Captain Larchey's whistle and away we 
go ! It is five o'clock. We pass the bridge of Flumet. 
Below, the torrent has become nothing but a noiseless 
streamlet. The route cut out of the rock is reduced to 
its simplest expression. We go, two by two, between a 
huge parapet of snow and a frozen wall decorated with 
icicles. This gorge is beautiful. But we do not linger 
in it long, and as we emerge from it we see before us, 
in the distance, the streaks of light which precede the 
sunrise. The valley is now wide and wind-swept. 
All the chasseurs have put on their mufflers and hel- 
mets. Our ears burn and we march quickly in order to 



172 ROGER ALLIER 

counteract the cold. One needs a certain amount of 
imagination to realize that under this snow and ice are 
buried the fine pastures of Megeve. It is here that the 
flocks graze during the summer. The first village that 
comes in our line of march is called Praz. What a 
contrast ! 

Soon the sun rises in an absolutely clear sky. The 
mountains of Arbois partly hide Mont Blanc from us. 
To the right emerges, behind the pass of Arbois, the 
needle of Bionnassay and the Dome. At the left 
appears the silhouette of the Aiguille Verte. At 
Megeve, the ski-runners leave us to mount to the pass 
of Arbois, while, after leaving the village, we follow 
the crossroad which ends at the chapel of Cretets. The 
little oratories are half buried in the snow and there is 
not a footprint leading towards the chapel. 

To try to describe the descent on the opposite side 
of Saint Gervais and the fairy-like appearance of 
Mont Blanc would be blasphemy. The photographs 
which I have taken will not faithfully reproduce that 
which it is impossible to paint. It is in winter that one 
should see the Aiguille de Varens and the Fiz draped 
with their sumptuous mantles of snow. 

We approach Saint Gervais. The gorge of Bon 
Nant, which the Pont du Diable crosses, is only a 
chaos of glare ice in fantastic forms. Saint Gervais is 
deserted. Not a stranger! There remain only the 
natives. The men are lodged as well as possible in the 
homes of the villagers. As for us, we find a little 
hotel, kept by a former chasseur of the battalion. It is 



PARIS AND TIGNES 173 

not heated, but what's the difference ! The cHmate of 
Saint Gervais is delightful. Here, no more of the 
glacial breeze. The village is backed up against the 
mountain, sheltered from the cold winds. It is ten 
above zero in the day and we find that the air is 
heavy! When the thermometer descends to fifteen 
below, we laugh at it. 

I am lamer than ever. No amount of massaging does 
any good. After dinner, having all the pains in the 
world when I attempt to put one foot before the other, 
I go to bed. And I give up writing you! Shall I at 
least be in condition to march tomorrow ? I am nearly 
paralyzed. What is going to become of my reputation 
in the battalion? Up to the present, nobody has 
noticed anything. I shall march, whatever the cost. 
We are going to climb to Joly on snowshoes, a mag- 
nificent ascent in winter, which I wish to make at any 
price. 

Saturday, January 24, 19 14. 

Five o'clock in the morning! The sky is perfectly 
clear, and we set out for Joly. I walk as if I never 
had felt the least fatigue. That is indeed a miracle ! 

Hardly have we passed the last cottages of Saint 
Nicholas de Veroce when the sun rises on Mont Blanc, 
We traverse the pine woods and through their ice- 
covered branches witness the illumination of the 
glaciers. The ski-runners have preceded us and when 
we come out past the last pine trees, we see them up 
yonder near the summit. We advance slowly; for the 



174 ROGER ALLIER 

snow is soft and we often sink into it in spite of our 
snowshoes. This run is very difficult, but our efforts 
are rewarded by a unique panorama. It is one of the 
most beautiful mountain marches that I have ever 
made. The ski-runners descend from Joly at a mete- 
oric pace, and we reach Saint Gervais at two o'clock. 

The meal finished, the chasseurs have nothing more 
important to do than secure sleds and bob-sleighs, 
while the ski-runners practice jumping. Up to the 
present there are no broken heads, but that will come. 
The sun's rays upon the glaciers produce some superb 
color effects. 



The winter marches finished, Roger, with Lieutenant 
Beynet, Second Lieutenant Motas d'Hestreux and the 
team of ski-runners, climbs to the poste des neiges at 
Tignes. He arrives there January 31st. 



January 31, 1914. 

Here I am in the country of skis. As I write, the 
young Tignards are leaving school and one sees babies 
five years old rush by on skis on their way home. . . . 

Our first meal at Tignes did not lack the picturesque. 
We knocked at the door of Mother Revial's house, as 
she does the cooking for the rare visitors who come to 
these parts, . . , Imagine a large room all finished 
in smoke-darkened wood, with a low ceiling and 
lighted by two windows which have double panes and 
are always closed. It is there that the whole "family," 



PARIS AND TIGNES 175 

in the patriarchal sense of the word, lives. Beasts and 
humans mingle. Half the room is occupied by the 
cows. In the other half one sees a great stove which 
covers everything with smoke, whether or not the 
chimney is choked with snow, a frequent incident in 
this season ; a large table, some benches, and some beds 
about a meter and a half high, to allow room for the 
sheep below them. As for the hens, they go every- 
where — especially where they are not wanted — and 
make a deafening noise, to which the lowing of the 
cows replies. Add to the picture a cow that has 
diarrhoea, and you will have an idea of the atmos- 
phere in which we ate — with excellent appetite, too. 
I must admit that we did not touch the "tignard," 
the most repugnant of cheeses. I ask your pardon 
for the exactness of my description. Assure your- 
self that the inn of Mother Revial is the best-kept 
house in Tignes. The room is clean in spite of the 
sickening odor. 

This is how the inhabitants of our mountains live at 
an altitude of a thousand meters or more. This is not 
characteristic of Tignes only; it is exactly the same 
from Seez to the Iseran. 

While we were eating, two people arrived in a sleigh. 
They unharnessed and then in came the horse, crossing 
our room with heavy steps, to take his place beside the 
cows. Some minutes afterward the door opened with 
a great noise. In the half-light we distinguished a 
haggard looking man, pushed by a mysterious force 
and clinging to an invisible something : he was bringing 



176 ROGER ALLIER 

in his calf which buffeted him about until the floor 
rang beneath his boots. 

The post is installed in the old gendarmerie: 

Sunday, February i, 19 14 — 8 p. m. 

I was obliged to interrupt my letter, and can add 
only a few words because I have no paper. Here we 
are in our new quarters ; the furniture is simple : an 
army bed, a bench, two lockers, a candle set in a box. 
It is sufficient; we are warm enough, which is the 
essential thing. At five o'clock it is still too dark to 
start out on skis. We work in a well-heated room 
around a table lighted by the only lamp of the post. 
Beynet and d'Hestreux are voracious readers. That 
circumstance gives me my chance. I turn in very early 
every evening, for the reveille is at six-thirty. During 
this time, our valiant chasseurs dance lustily to the 
music of an accordeon or play "moura," hitting the 
table with heavy blows. But their greatest pleasure is 
wrestling on the beds. 

I must stop. A muleteer who goes down tomorrow 
morning to Bourg-St-Maurice is coming to take my 
letter, for he starts very early. 

Roger had carried to the mountains his books on ad- 
ministrative law and he plugged away at them in the 
midst of the snowbound country. 

February 8, 19 14. 
. . . However paradoxical it may appear, I work 



PARIS AND TIGNES 177 

here with much profit. I am no longer at an age where 
one needs a mentor who assigns him a task day by day 
and hour by hour. I take my work very seriously, I 
assure you. From the fact that my letters are only 
scribbled jottings of daily events, you conclude per- 
haps that I live only in the present, without thought 
of the morrow or even of the remoter future. Nothing 
is more contrary to my temperament. To be con- 
demned to an existence without an end in view would 
be for me the worst of sufferings. I know what I am 
seeking and whither I am tending. In preparing for 
admission to the Conseil d'Etat, I have an object and 
I dare even to call it an ideal. I am going to prove 
it. I shall be accepted for the Conseil d'Etat in De- 
cember, 191 5. And my stay in the Alps is an excel- 
lent trump in my game ! 

I am subjecting myself at this moment to a vigorous 
moral and physical test. I am renewing all the cells 
of my organism. . . . From the physical point of 
view, I am practicing real asceticism. The sun and the 
cold of the high mountain purify like fire. And from 
the moral point of view I am also doing myself a 
great deal of good. You cannot imagine what tenacity, 
cool-headedness, and mental alertness the long runs on 
skis demand, under penalty of accident. This assertion 
can really be understood only by those who have seen 
and lived these things. The ski is a veritable school 
of will power and character. I consider, therefore, 
that instead of losing my time, I am deriving a lasting 
profit from each day that I spend here. 



178 ROGER ALLIER 

Motas d'Hestreux leaves the post February nth; 
Lieutenant Beynet and Roger then perform a little act 
of generosity which straightway gets them into difficulties. 

February i8, 19 14. 

To furnish the place, which we have pompously 
named "The Chasseurs' Assembly Hall," we gave up 
a bench, thinking that our two chairs would be suffi- 
cient. Some days ago, we were wrestling, Beynet and 
I, as we sometimes do, and broke one of the chairs. 
The pieces are all there, but the chair is no longer of 
use. Then for a time we contemplated taking turns 
eating by organizing two services, as in the dining 
cars. That would be very agreeable. One of us would 
fall to while the other would have a fine opportunity 
to whet his appetite. Happily, the beds are very low, 
so that while Beynet, by virtue of his rank as chief of 
the post, seats himself on the sound chair, I eat on my 
bed. 

. . . Our meals are the work of a good chasseur 
who understands cooking about as I understand mathe- 
matics; he knows only the Sixt patois and answers to 
the euphonious name of Moenne-Loccoz. He is a 
carpenter by trade and his principal business at the post 
is to make and repair skis. 

The time of the arrival of the postman was somewhat 
problematical : 

February 10, 19 14. 

The muleteer who comes up each day with our mail 



PARIS AND TIGNES 179 

and our supplies arrives generally around three o'clock. 
At half past three he is not yet in sight. At four no- 
body. At five it is beginning to get dark — still no- 
body. Has there been an accident? For some days 
avalanches have been occurring constantly in the 
passes through the gorges. At five-thirty we take our 
packs, our skis, a rope, and lanterns; two chasseurs 
accompany us. Between the Brevieres and Thuille we 
cross several avalanches of soft snow which cut off 
the road for about fifty meters. At last we find our 
muleteer. He had wisely waited at Ste. Foy until after 
the fall of the avalanches and did not set out until the 
snow had begun to freeze again. Several times he had 
had to unload his mule in order to get him through 
difficult passes. At each crossing of an avalanche the 
brave beast lifts up his ears, opens his eyes wide, and 
buries himself in the snow up to his chest. . . . We 
fill our packs with bread, meat, vegetables, and fodder 
and finally reach Brevieres. At eight-thirty we are at 
Tignes, having well earned our dinner. 

At that time he is chief of the post, the lieutenant hav- 
ing descended to Annecy. His isolation is complete : 

February 19, 19 14. 

I am without news, for the wires were cut yesterday 
by an avalanche. Our numbers were increased yester- 
day by the arrival of several reservists, among them 
the guides Mangard from Val d'Isere and Alfred 
Couttet, the champion ski-runner of France. 



i8o ROGER ALLIER 

February 20th, Roger, who had decided to attend the 
Conference of the French Student Christian Federation 
at Lyon, left Tignes on a several days' leave of absence. 
To get down to the railroad at Bourg Saint Maurice, he 
has to do twenty-seven kilometers on his skis. At Lyon, 
he finds his father and his eldest sister. He is present at 
all the meetings, except the last, sees his old Paris friends 
again, goes over with them a thousand projects for ex- 
pansion and conquest, and replenishes his fund of en- 
thusiasm. His greatest regret is to be obliged to return 
before the closing of the Conference. But to reach his 
post he has to ascend alone the wild valley of the Isere, 
on skis, by a route the last trace of which is often hidden 
by snow in the places where it follows the mountain- 
side. The way would be too dangerous to attempt at 
night. To accomplish it by day Roger has to leave the 
Conference at the very hour when he has the greatest 
desire to remain there. His decision was wise: "I 
climbed to Tignes," he wrote, "in terrible weather ; it was 
snowing so hard that not a Tignard was out of doors." 

The stay at the winter post, which was in reality a 
school for ski-runners, ended with a trip which took 
them all to Chamonix by the Cormet d'Areches, the pass 
of Joly, and that of Voza. These were marches of which, 
later, these hardened Alpinists spoke only with a shudder : 



Chamonix, March 5, 19 14. 

At last, a day of well-earned repose. Yesterday 
evening, on arriving at Chamonix, I was worn out; I 
forgot my promise, for I had neither the strength nor 
the courage to write. My eyes, especially, were too 
tired. Two days of marching in the storm from morn- 
ing to evening ! That burned me frightfully. 



PARIS AND TIGNES i8i 

It was snowing great flakes when we left Aime 
Tuesday morning. Our skis sank in deeply, but we 
had decided to cross Cormet, cost what it might. For 
the rest, as the wind had fallen, we did not fear the 
storm; the snow was falling straight without a whirl. 
It was impossible to get lost; the path lay largely 
through a forest of great pines, whose frozen branches 
lean almost to the earth. Oh ! those magnificent pines ! 
The valley of Ormente, which descends from Cormet 
d'Areches, has been overlooked by the Vandals. Only 
several great avalanches have devastated this forest and 
have carved through it lofty aisles which we cross with 
precaution, one man at a time. Instinctively, we turn 
our eyes towards the height, strain our ears to catch 
the slightest premonitory crackling, and prepare to 
loosen our ski-straps and to let ourselves go with arms 
folded. No incident occurs until we leave the forest. 
There, we are nailed to the spot by a squall. No more 
pines to shelter us. We now climb a rocky ridge, bare 
and wind-swept. The snow is frozen and icy, and bites 
our faces like hail; it is the beginning of the storm. 
Without our knitted helmets the cold would be unbear- 
able. It is necessary to go on with eyes closed, heads 
bowed, and shoulders bent under our thirty kilos of 
baggage. We still ascend some 200 meters, for we 
know that high up near the stream is an abandoned 
cottage. We find it half buried in the snow. The door 
of the stable is almost completely hidden. We hurl 
ourselves in without a word. For some moments we 
do not speak, but glance about us to make sure that all 



i82 ROGER ALLIER 

are there. And with what mad haste we take off our 
skis in order that our fingers may not have time to 
freeze ! This has the air of being a tale, but it is never- 
theless the plain truth. One needs to have been lashed 
by that storm in order to believe it. 

"Every one here? Break crusts!" And the packs 
are opened and our jaws begin to work zealously, for 
appetite never loses its rights — or gaiety either ! While 
stamping his feet, Beynet, who knows the Chamoniard 
patois, enters into conversation with the chasseurs, of 
which I can gather only a few scraps. From time to 
time the word "storm" is repeated; then, there are 
great bursts of laughter in which I join with confidence 
and noise. That ought not to be hard, however, for 
Chasseur S. I. has the air of understanding it. I guess 
this from the two rows of white teeth which appear 
below a pair of black glasses. The fact is that we 
look more like masked Samurai than like Europeans. 
The sheepfold which shelters us is about fifteen meters 
deep. By the only door which lets in the light, the 
wind drives in with such force that the snow is cover- 
ing the farther wall of dry stones. 

"Packs on your backs, children, and away!" And 
again we bend our spines. One can see less and less. 
One hour later, we hurl ourselves on a little chapel 
whose location we know well, without seeing it. Cer- 
tain rocks noticed the preceding summer have served 
as guides. We breathe heavily an instant, but without 
stopping. We approach the pass. Impossible to be 
mistaken, for the passage leads between two ridges. 



PARIS AND TIGNES 183 

We pass the last cottage, the door of which is open, and 
give a sigh of satisfaction on seeing in a momentary 
clearing the silhouette of a cross a hundred meters 
higher up. But, is it the right cross ? Let us be pru- 
dent. Beynet turns towards me, unfolds his map. 
. . . No more cross ! Nothing ! The snow makes us 
close our eyes. Still up we go, marching as straight 
as possible. "Halt !" cries Beynet, and I perceive, rub- 
bing my eyes, that the point of his ski is in empty space. 
We have mounted too high. The pass must be at our 
left. At last we find the cross ! 

But we are not at the end of our trouble; for, how 
are we to throw ourselves on the opposite slope, when 
one can see nothing beyond the end of his skis ? That 
would be madness, although we all know the summer 
itinerary in its most minute details. We descend first 
by a steep slope to a small lake. Then, we make a 
slight ascent to follow a little rocky ridge. That is the 
delicate point. If we cut too much to the right, we 
expose ourselves to an avalanche, which will drag us 
down with a sure stroke. If we cut too much to the 
left, we fall into a cascade of about forty meters which 
is formed by the torrent at the outlet of the lake. An 
error of a few meters would be fatal ; there is nothing 
to do then but patiently to await clear weather. This 
delicate passage crossed, all will be well. The min- 
utes seem like hours to us; for the cold is unbearable. 
To cap the climax, one of Chasseur Charlet's feet is 
beginning to freeze, and he is sleepy. We must de- 
scend to the first cottage without an instant's loss of 



i84 ROGER ALLIER 

time. And here we are, Beynet and I, busy rubbing 
Charlet with snow. That takes a half hour and we set 
out again. But the storm still keeps on! At last, at 
the end of an hour, which seems as long as a night to 
us, we succeed in finding the passage between the rocks, 
the only passage! Then, the descent begins — with 
caution — and we go like snow-blows down an incline 
which we know well, but which is invisible. We have 
to pay such close attention for two hours that our eyes 
are smarting with fatigue. Suddenly, through a rift in 
the clouds we see — with what a sigh of relief ! — the 
valley of Areches, with its great forests. One hundred 
and fifty meters below us is the large square sheep fold 
which we know so well, stationed like a stronghold on 
a steep crag which is all covered in summer with rhodo- 
dendrons. Little by little the wind calms down, we go 
out of the storm, and the descent becomes easy. We 
fly like arrows over the snow, which, though newly 
fallen, is fine and very slippery. Sometimes in Indian 
file, sometimes in a body, we wind through the first 
clearings of the pines into the sheltered roads between 
the cottages. This forest descent is so exhilarating 
that we forget hunger. It is two o'clock, however, 
when we see the church tower of Areches. The cure 
receives us with many blessings and offers us all a 
shelter in his kitchen. At three-thirty we set out again, 
partially dried and well fed, and glide towards Beau- 
fort. The cottages in which we were quartered last 
summer are covered with a meter of snow. When we 
reach Hauteluce, it is seven in the evening and still 



PARIS AND TIGNES 185 

snowing! A good woman gives us some food and 
offers us a bed and a mattress and sleep is not long in 
coming. 

From Chamonix, Roger went on to Argentieres. He 
was looking for a house for his parents' occupancy the 
following summer. He found one, still buried in snow, 
the house where he was to spend only a few days with his 
people at the end of July, and from which, the first of 
August, he was to depart, never to return. 

Roger returned to Paris March 13th. As his parents 
were on the point of setting out for Roumania, Turkey, 
and Greece, he wanted to see them before they left. He 
had also to play during their absence the role of big 
brother. 

The three months of summer seemed to rush by, for 
him, with a dizzy rapidity. It was because he had to 
prepare with redoubled vigor for the coming examina- 
tion.^ In his letter of February 8th, he had spoken of 
presenting himself in December, 1915 ; in reality he was 
definitely counting upon attempting it toward the end of 
1914. On this return from Tignes, he did not conceal 
his intentions from his parents. But it was in this period 
that he found the means of adding still further, and in 
extraordinary measure, to his occupations. He had be- 
come acquainted with the "Association of Volunteers for 
Social Service," which had just been founded by Mrs. 
Julien Koechlin. He did not affiliate himself with it as a 
member; several scruples — among them, we shall see, a 
scruple of modesty — prevented this. But he saw in the 
work of this Association a means of devoting himself to 
altruistic effort and of enlarging his experience. He 
gave it his time with the great zeal which he put into 

^ For candidates for the Conseil d'Etat. 



i86 ROGER ALLIER 

everything, and with a keen understanding for the work 
which permitted him to make himself useful. June 
28th, for example, at the "fraternal social service ban- 
quet" which took place at Clairiere, he served at table 
with a pleasing grace produced by mingled humility and 
gaiety. And on this occasion he took upon himself a task 
which was going to demand much work and take much 
of his time. We have asked one who saw him employed 
in this connection to tell us his recollections : 

"Mrs. Koechlin had entrusted to me a family sunken in 
the deepest misery ; there were a woman and four chil- 
dren, without other resources than those of public charity, 
living in a wretched hovel at 24 Broca Street. If you 
pass this house — it is a furnished hotel — you may say to 
yourself that he often crossed the threshold of it filled 
with indignation and grief at the thought of legislation 
powerless to prevent the exploitation of miserable beings 
by a conscienceless landlord. How many times have we 
vented our rage together ! As there was also a puzzling 
divorce problem to complicate the woman's situation, Mrs. 
Koechlin had said to me: 'I am going to ask Roger 
Allier to come to our aid. He will be able to handle the 
judicial side of this affair. I will tell him to see you.' 
And thus it is that it began. 'The judicial side' — Ah! 
Yes ! He handled everything, even to the smallest de- 
tails, with an unheard-of devotion. And nothing could 
be more thankless than this task. This woman was half 
imbecile; after weeks of effort, we discovered that she 
had not told us the truth and had been acting behind our 
backs in direct opposition to the course we were follow- 
ing. She was unfit to bring up children; it was neces- 
sary to place them out; it is impossible to describe the 
trouble which this involved. And for the divorce! The 
patience with which he questioned her, seeking to get his 
bearings in this maze of contradictions and lies 1 He once 



PARIS AND TIGNES 187 

stayed there two whole hours taking notes, striving pa- 
tiently to make her tell the truth and to gain some com- 
prehension of the case for himself. He went to see the 
husband — how many times ! — and the pseudo-husband, 
seeking scrupulously to form a just opinion. When, 
after believing for a long time in this woman's innocence, 
we finally discovered that we had been deceived, he said 
to me, 'I cannot plead for her with a clear conscience; I 
will work on the affair to the end ; but the pleading I will 
entrust to another attorney.' 

"And I said to myself, while listening, that a similar 
professional conscience would not be met with often. 
. . . Moreover, this case was to be heard during the 
autumn of 1914, and I never knew myself how it turned 
out. Once a month, this woman used to go to the mairie 
to get her pension. One day, fearing I do not know what 
complications, he accompanied her himself to be sure 
that they did her no wrong. When one reflects on this 
woman's appearance — well, there are not many young 
men who would have consented to show themselves in 
the street with her. But he thought of that not at ail; 
he took it as a matter of course. In the same way, he 
had conducted the ragged little boys across Paris to take 
them to a refuge, to which he afterward returned to see 
them, in order to assure himself 'that they were not being 
bored' ; and all this at a time when, as you know, he was 
very busy.^ The little ones of this family adored him, 
and clung around his neck when they saw him. More- 
over, all the children took such a liking to him that the 
younger sister, a little girl between one and two years of 
age, uttered piercing cries as he prepared to leave. 

"In seeing him at work on this case I realized as never 



^ Among Roger's papers have been found many traces of his 
efforts to discover an organization which could take charge of 
these children. 



i88 ROGER ALLIER 

before the full significance of a profession which has been 
taken up as a vocation. That alone would have revealed 
to me the true ministry which a Christian lawyer can ex- 
ercise in the immediate sphere of his activity. And, what 
was more striking in him, and more than once moved me 
and filled me with admiration, was his perfect modesty. 
Modesty — this word is so trite when applied to him! I 
do not know how to define the complete ignorance which 
he had of his own value and which gave to his personality 
an indefinable strength and magnetism. It is a rare 
quality. I recall how that struck me one day when we 
were talking about the form of the pledge of the Volun- 
teers for Social Service. I no longer recall the exact 
terms of this form, but it was substantially a promise 
to serve in a spirit of consecration. He said to me: 'I 
have told Mrs. Koechlin that I could not sign that. It is 
too serious ; I am too insignificant a person to make such 
an engagement; I am not worthy of it. I will do all the 
work that she wishes to entrust to me. But promise 
something so great, I cannot.' It was not to be doubted 
that he was, perhaps, of all the members of the Associa- 
tion, the one who viewed his service from the highest 
standpoint, who was the most 'faithful in the little things,' 
and the most completely consecrated. One felt that one 
could trust oneself to him absolutely, that he was one of 
those men who, when they are once charged with a thing, 
will not give up and will accompHsh their task, cost what 
it may. I already felt that, without dreaming of the 
tragic circumstances in which he was going to verify that 
impression. . . . 

"He seemed so young and at the same time so mature! 
I ask myself if one of the reasons of his charm was not 
this mixture of virility on the one hand and of traits so 
frank, so young, sometimes almost childlike, on the other. 
. . . The Semeur speaks of the expression of his eyes. 



PARIS AND TIGNES 189 

That glance — it struck me a long time before we knew 
each other personally; there was such a clearness, a 
purity, in his look that it seemed as if life with its ugliness, 
its sadness, its meanness had not touched him, and as if 
he had come from a different realm. '^ . . . He was one 
of those, however, who have the courage to face squarely 
the causes of suffering. I remember the tone with which 
he said to me, one evening — it was at Versailles, on Whit- 
sunday, in the garden, and at a time when we had the 
right, it seemed to me, to be very tired of our good woman 
and very glad because her case was closed — 'And then, 
when this family is relieved, we shall take up another, 
and still another; for there will be a taboo upon our 
Christian lives while such things exist.' " 

July 15th Roger preceded his parents to Argentieres. 
He had formed the plan, before resuming his law studies, 
of making some new ascents in the Mont Blanc range. 
This was for the purpose of renewing the joys of Al- 
pinis-m and at the same time getting into training for the 
maneuvers which he was proposing to follow before the 
end of the vacation with the Eleventh Battalion. It was 
for this reason that he carried his officer's locker, his 
uniforms, his arms, his glasses, and his range finder. 



''This is the passage from the Semeur to which allusion is 
made : "The most characteristic trait of the face of our com- 
rade, that which more than any other enabled the attendants 
who had approached him in the ambulance of Saint Die to 
recognize his description, was his glance, a glance where there 
was, more than frankness, a light which spoke of the clarity of his 
sotil. It was his whole conscience which was revealed in this 
glance, together with his desire to serve." The contrast of his 
dark eyes and their gentle expression, the purity which was 
reflected there, struck one immediately ; and among the letters 
written on the morrow of the terrible discovery to his parents 
by those who knew Roger, there is hardly one that does not speak 
of it. 



I90 ROGER ALLIER 

With his friends, Jacques Vehrhn and Migaut, he made 
the ascent of the Courtes and of the Droites and then that 
of the Aiguille du Moine by a new route. "This route," 
says the review La Montague, "is more interesting than 
the usual one." In the parlance of the Alpinists, inter- 
est is measured, one knows, by the difficulties to be con- 
quered. 

Wednesday, July 29th, he came down from the last trip 
on the glacier of Tour and to the cabin of Orny. The 
following Saturday the notice of the general mobilization 
was published. 



IX 

AIME-EN-SAVOIE 
(August i-August 22, 1914) 

Mobilization — The machine guns of the Fifty-first 
Battalion — The tragedy of the hour — Departure of the 
Eleventh Battalion — In the fields of Tarentaise — Re- 
sponsibilities of an officer — The journey from Mulhouse 
— Restlessness — Departure for the front. 



IX 

AIME-EN-SAVOIE 

When Roger had descended from the mountains, on 
the evening of Wednesday, July 29th, the catastrophe pre- 
pared by Germany and Austria was becoming more and 
more imminent. And yet one was reluctant to believe 
war at hand. Roger, who was ready for everything, 
placed less belief in it than any one else. He kept re- 
peating: "We are in the presence of blackmail. At the 
last moment, when all seems lost, everything will be set- 
tled provisionally and war will again be postponed." 
Friday he felt that things were growing worse, and Satur- 
day, he descended from Argentieres to Chamonix to 
purchase things that would be indispensable in case of 
sudden departure. It was at Chamonix that, at four 
o'clock, he heard the order of general mobilization pro- 
claimed. He returned in haste. At six o'clock he was 
at Argentieres. At seven his chest was ready. He had 
put on his uniform. After he had eaten a hasty meal 
and read some passages in the Bible and had family 
prayer, he went to the station. In the neighborhood, all 
roused by the news brought in the afternoon by a gen- 
darme and published far and wide by the alarm, the sight 
of an officer in uniform, fully accoutred, produced re- 
doubled excitement. A veritable procession accompanied 
him to the station. He was the first to depart. In the 
street, on the station platform, the silence was poignant. 
The souls of the people were calm, but with the sentiment 
of something tragic. Only some young German girls, 

193 



194 ROGER ALLIER 

staying in a local hotel, displayed a stupid indifference and 
even an insolent gaiety. They failed to observe the dic- 
tates of propriety. 

The first day appointed for the mobilization was Sun- 
day, August 2nd. Roger left Saturday evening, to try to 
be at his post before the arrival of his men and to receive 
them in person. His father accompanied him to Cha- 
monix. His mother had decided to go all the way to 
Annecy. At Chamonix Roger and she could find no 
train on which to go farther. They stayed there for the 
night. The next morning they were on the first train to 
depart for Annecy, which arrived from Vallorcine with 
the majority of the men whose order of departure was 
for the first day. All these men had had to start on the 
first train of that day. His father, who arrived with 
them, told in one of his addresses of this descent of the 
mobilized men of the valley : 

"When I returned it was towards midnight. In the 
village the lights ordinarily were put out early. That 
night they were nowhere extinguished; one saw them 
shining in all the windows. For hours I watched them, 
those lights, and I thought of all that they were telling 
me. They told me, in their manner, that in each of these 
houses there was a son, sometimes several sons, a hus- 
band, a brother, who would have to take the first train. 
The mothers, the sweethearts, the sisters, without a word, 
were preparing the baggage, the little provisions for the 
trip. The dramatic element consisted in this, that no- 
body complained and that each kept at the bottom of his 
heart that with which it would fain overflow. ... In 
the morning, towards five o'clock, I was in the street. 
From each house a man was coming out. The women 
accompanied them to the door. There, the last kiss; and 
the man went away to the station. On the platform, 
there were only men; with the departing were fathers. 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 195 

brothers, and friends. Up to the departure of the train 
they talked. Their conversation was grave but not sad. 
I do not say that the brave ones were happy; there are 
certain bonds which must not be broken by laughter. 
But their stern decision was not devoid of enthusiasm for 
a duty manfully shouldered. . . . The train started. A 
waving of hands through the windows of the train. A 
shout, 'Vive la France!' And the strains of the Mar- 
seillaise were heard. They sang it with all their hearts 
and like a hymn. ... I took the same train, to be a 
longer time with these brave men. At each station we 
picked up more mobilized men. And there was each time 
the same burst of serious fervor. I felt with thrilling 
assurance that these heroes of tomorrow were not mere 
helpless beings overtaken by an inexorable fate but that, 
freely, with their whole being, they all were giving them- 
selves to France." 

To Fayet, Roger and his mother continued their way 
alone. At La Roche, they found themselves in the same 
compartment with Lieutenant Eduard Vaucher, son of 
the dean of the School of Protestant Theology in Paris, 
who, accompanied by his young wife, was rejoining at 
Annecy the Thirtieth Regiment of Infantry. 

Mrs. Vaucher tells us that during the next three days, 
which they spent at the Hotel Verdun, the two officers 
lost no opportunity to be together. They said their good- 
byes Wednesday, August 5th.i 

While attending to all his duties after his arrival at 
Annecy, Roger could still give some fine hours to his 
mother, who was to depart Sunday evening by the last 

' Lieutenant Edouard Vaucher fell some weeks later and was 
cited in the order of the Army: "September 25, 1914, in the at- 
tack of the woods of Foucaucourt stuck to the command of the 
company in spite of a first wound in the leg, and was killed some 
minutes later. Has given proof during the whole campaign of 
the highest military qualities." 



196 ROGER ALLIER 

train taking civilians. He was charged with making up a 
machine gun section for the Fifty-first BattaHon of 
Chasseurs. Responsible for every detail of the organiza- 
tion, his task was a huge one. He himself gives an idea 
of this in a letter which will be reproduced in its entirety. 

At Annecy he had found again his friend Frederic 
Westphal, who, in a letter of March 9, 1916, described to 
Roger's parents this meeting and some of the ideas they 
had had occasion to exchange. We reproduce here the 
essential part of this letter : 

"On the first day of the mobilization, we met like 
brothers in the streets of Annecy. We both commented 
with regret that the church and the vestry were closed. 
Very busy getting our respective contingents under way, 
he his machine gun section of the Fifty-first Chasseurs 
and I the reservists of my company, we decided to 
meet before the Hotel Verdun at six o'clock the next 
evening. At the appointed hour, I found him waiting 
for me, in his black dress uniform. There was a big 
dinner at the hotel that evening. My worn suit was by 
no means so good as his ; but what did that matter to him ? 
He received me with open arms, and we went away to- 
gether, an ill-assorted pair, chasseur and drab civilian. 
The crowd and the dust followed us, they became more 
and more dense and breathed a frenzy of patriotism, 
anxiety, and wine. 

"We walked towards the lake to look at Tournette in 
the water before the sunset. We talked the v/hole way 
along Albigny street. Shall I tell you of the sense of 
peace both of us felt after our feverish journey? What 
a refuge at such a time to be with friends in so wonder- 
ful a setting of nature, at twilight. 

"He told me of his rapid descent from the mountain, 
of his regret over having seen so little of you, of his luck 
in having prepared his luggage in advance. He asked 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 197 

me for news of Henri,^ and counted strongly on seeing 
him again. He would have liked to stay with the Eleventh 
Chasseurs but was content with the role which they had 
assigned him. We talked of you. He feared that you 
were greatly worried. Letters no longer came through. 
But we were both proud to be living amid the gravity of 
such hours. We were struck with horror by the heed- 
lessness manifested by the people about us. Roger shud- 
dered to think of the mirth we saw exhibited and of the 
misery of the morrow. He had a vision of the abyss in 
which the criminal attitude of Germany was engulfing us. 
But it will not be long, we said. It cannot last for long ; 
there are too many conflicting interests and the fury of 
arms will be too atrocious. We hardly dared to imagine 
the grandeur of the task with which Christians would be 
confronted after the war. A keen sense of universal dis- 
aster, however, added to the idea of the danger we were 
facing, dimmed our vision of the future. The stigma of 
the present horror seemed to bring discredit upon all the 
churches. But it also most certainly invalidated many 
other things. In any case it emphasized the imperative 
need of proclaiming our Christian faith more widely than 
ever before, since it resulted from a deep ignorance of 
the Gospel. 

"It was not the Gospel which was guilty. The responsi- 
ble ones were the men who had betrayed it. We asked 
ourselves if the disunion of French Protestantism and the 
vanity of certain of its speculations and discussions 
would not delay the accomplishment of our duties 
towards the country. But Roger beheved that the present 
ordeal would change and renew many things. It must, 
unless the gift of God was to pass into other hands. We 
both resolved to find in the sufferings of the coming days 



■ Henri Westphal, wounded and made prisoner August 24, 1914. 



198 ROGER ALLIER 

our consecration for the future task. For the moment, 
the power of intercession and of example seemed alone 
to be of service in the fulfillment of our duty as Christian 
soldiers. We commended to God our loved ones, and 
returned to our tasks with the assurance and the calm- 
ness of well-directed workers. 

"At the rendezvous of the next day I did not see Roger. 
He had left sooner than he had expected. Since then he 
must have often regretted, as I have also done, not having 
beeen able to prolong this brotherly hour and pleasing 
oasis in the midst of hard days." 

The same day that Roger had this conversation with 
Frederic Westphal, he wrote to Argentieres : 

Monday, August 3, 19 14. 
Dear Parents : 

Mobilization is going ahead smoothly, and with re- 
assuring regularity. Every one gets the feeling that 
all the details of it had been anticipated. This method- 
ical preparation inspires in everybody confidence and 
enthusiasm without artificial stimulation. 

There is only one shadow in the picture — if it is one. 
We are disconcerted by the rapidity with which all the 
men have responded to the call. Fathers of families, 
who were not expected until the third or fourth day, 
presented themselves in the first hours, begging us to 
equip them at once. Men fifty and sixty years old 
come pouring in, and some old men of sixty-five ask 
for guns. Young boys of seventeen are joining us. 
Our ranks have just been increased by an old chamois 
hunter come down from Tarentaise with his sons. 
What a magnificent corps of mountaineers is the Fifty- 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 199 

first! It gives an impression of great and irresistible 
force. 

Until further orders, we are assigned to the defense 
of the Petit Saint Bernard, We shall not set out be- 
fore Wednesday or Thursday, Italy having just noti- 
fied us officially of her neutrality. We have too many 
men; the completed mobilization gives us a strength of 
350 to a company. 

As for the Eleventh, it is still encamped ready for 
war, at Meythet, near Annecy, impatiently awaiting 
departure for an unknown destination. 

We lack news. Not a paper has come here, but there 
is no dearth of fake reports. First, there was the 
rumor that the Third Battalion of Chasseurs had 
driven back the 179th Regiment of Prussian Infantry. 
Then, that the Fourth Dragoons had had a serious en- 
gagement with a regiment of Uhlans. Another rumor 
had it that Garros or Brindejonc des Moulinais had 
brought down a Zeppelin carrying twenty officers of 
the General Staff. According to still another, General 
d'Amade had entered Alsace with 50,000 men. Auga- 
gneur has become our ranking admiral, if it is neces- 
sary to believe the news posted at the prefecture. 
What is one to believe of all this? Perhaps in some 
months we shall know the truth of this war. For the 
present, I note a great number of impressions, for 
every minute is history. 

Commander Gamelin continues to be attached to 
General Joffre. 

Pardon the brevity of this letter. It is with diffi- 



200 ROGER ALLIER 

culty that I find time to eat. My artillerymen are 
nearly all equipped. All goes well. The spirit is ex- 
cellent. We shall give a good account of ourselves. 
The guns are new and shining, the munitions are com- 
plete, and the fifteen mules are very docile. 

Soon more news. 

During this day of fine sunlight, I have often 
thought of you and of the splendors which your glaciers 
must display. I hope that you have not too many diffi- 
culties in getting provisions and that you can consider 
yourselves up there as privileged beings. . . . 

Has mother arrived without mishap at Argentieres ? 
I long to have a few words of news. 

My most affectionate kisses to all. 

P. S. What is the name of your neighbor, the father 
of seven children ?^ 



The great event of this week at Annecy is the departure 
of the Eleventh for the East. As for the Fifty-first, it is 
assigned to encamp for an indefinite time at Aime, in 
Savoy : 

Friday, August 7, 19 14. 
Dear Parents : 

It is nearly midnight. In a few minutes we are going 
to begin to put the machine guns on the train. In two 
hours we shall depart. The moment we have so longed 
for is approaching. We can no longer hold back our 

^ The guide, Camille Simond, assigned to the First Territorials, 
corresponding to the Eleventh Battalion of Chasseurs. Roger 
thought he was in the Fifty-first and wanted to look him up. 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 201 

men. Two days ago the Eleventh left for the eastern 
frontier in the midst of indescribable enthusiasm. 
When will it be our turn? In the whole Fifty-first 
there is not a man who has not made in advance the 
sacrifice of his life. I am to set out with entire con- 
fidence, followed by thirty-five staunch fellows ready 
for everything. Tomorrow morning we shall be at 
Aime. For how long a time? We do not know for 
certain, but without doubt we shall not delay in follow- 
ing the steps of the Eleventh. 

I am sending you a tiny photograph, which mother 
can put in a locket or a small medallion. 

Good-by for now ! 

A thousand loving kisses to all. 

Aime, Monday, August 10, 1914 — 2 p. m. 

Dear Parents : 

In the midst of the fertile fields and orchards of 
Tarentaise, we are enjoying the fortunes of peace. No 
cannonading disturbs our sleep. I have ordered my 
men to take their guns all apart and to clean them. 
. . . That permits me to devote a few minutes to 
you at last. I have been able, since the first of August, 
to write you only a few hasty lines. I have considered 
that at the head of a detachment such as that entrusted 
to me, my responsibility was too great for me to fail 
to interest myself in every detail of the mobilization. 
I have, therefore, spent several days in securing the 
best mules in the region of Annecy, personally accom- 



202 ROGER ALLIER 

panying the requisition committee. At the same time, I 
have kept a careful watch on the equipment of my men, 
in order that it might lack neither button nor thimble. 
I have inspected my guns, regulated my range finder, 
secured for myself at the gunsmith's the greatest pos- 
sible number of duplicate pieces, had my fifteen mules 
reshod, their pack-saddles adjusted and their harness 
strengthened, obtained carbines, revolvers, munitions, 
fuses for the machine guns, bottles of oil, petroleum, 
and valvoline, brushes, curry-combs, ram-rods, sponges, 
wagon awnings, grooming kits, bags of rags, forage 
cords. Please excuse this enumeration, which I could 
still further prolong, . . , For once you will not 
attribute my silence to that pigritia scribendi to which 
I am addicted. I have had very little time for sleep 
but I can justly claim for myself that I have neglected 
no one detail to safeguard the thirty-five lives for 
which I shall have to account. My men know it. And, 
in war, confidence is everything. I have otherwise no 
merit. I have not, so to speak, had to make a step or a 
movement which was not foreseen, hour by hour, in 
my mobilization instructions ; it is a triumph of organ- 
ization and of method. We have been preceded in our 
sector by the Twenty-second, which before the mobil- 
ization occupied Champieux, by the Sixty-second, 
which is encamped at Beaufort, and by the First 
Battalion of Territorial Alpins, which is occupying the 
Ruined Redoubt and guarding the Petit Saint Bernard. 
As for the Eleventh, their departure for Belfort 
provoked indescribable enthusiasm. All the chasseurs 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 203 

filed past, decorated with flowers as after a victory. 
Nothing could be finer than the bold, determined pace 
of these 1,500 men; but never, either, have I been so 
sad as when I saw my old company depart. Of all 
these men whose hands I shook, which ones will re- 
turn? Shall I ever see again their brave captain, that 
veteran of the Alps?'* 

Here is Captain Larchey,^ imperturbably calm and 
smiling, jesting drily up to the last moment! He 
charged me with messages for you. His face is shin- 
ing with joy. Captains Beck and Halbwachs seem to 
be experiencing the finest moment of their existence, 
for they hope soon to enter Alsace. 

I said good-by to Beynet and the brave ski-runners 
who used to follow us only five months ago in the 
snowstorms, good-by to my orderlies, good-by to my 
dear marching companions, the scouts, good-by to the 
Chamonix guides, to the Mangard brothers, and to the 
bold chamois hunters of the Val d'Isere. . . . Will 



* Captain Blanc-Coquand, killed September 3, 1914, at Kem- 
berg, cited in the Order of the Army : "Gave proof in several 
battles of bravery, zeal, and sang-froid worthy of the greatest 
praise; fell mortally wounded while leading his company vigor- 
ously on to the assault." 

^ Seriously wounded August 20, 1914, at Charbonniere 
(Alsace), died August 22nd, and mentioned in the Order of the 
Army: "The four chiefs of section and seventy chasseurs of his 
company having fallen, he rallied his company and brought it 
forward, forcing the enemy to draw back; mortally wounded 
a few days later, refused, in spite of terrible suffering, to occupy 
the only unoccupied bed at the first-aid post, saying: 'I do not 
want that bed : there are certainly, among our wounded, chas- 
seurs in worse condition than L' " 



204 ROGER ALLIER 

they return? Always this question! All are happy 
to go and are quite simply and unostentatiously re- 
solved to do their duty. When the train left, 1,500 
voices sang the "Sidi-Brahim." "They fell in silence" 
— those are the last words which reach our ears. Yes, 
many will fall, but not one will retreat. Such troops 
can be cut to pieces; they cannot be beaten. "Sidi- 
Brahim" is the name of a massacre — a massacre and 
a victory. 

On seeing the train depart I was ashamed and be- 
side myself with rage, and I was not surprised to learn 
that several men of the Fifty-first had jumped the 
wall of the quarters to mingle with the ranks of the 
Eleventh and depart for the frontier. When will it 
be our turn ? 

Before leaving Annecy, I was able to make my 
adieux to the youngest of the Westphal brothers. The 
elder was in Scotland when the diplomatic situation 
became grave. He has not yet succeeded in reaching 
Annecy. 

Here we have been for four days installed in this 
lovely valley of Tarentaise, at the outlet of the narrow 
pass of Saint-Marcel, at the foot of forests which rise 
towards Jovet and the Cormet d'Areches. Above the 
pines emerges the snowy pyramid of Pourri. The 
weather is glorious. Even at Annecy, the night of our 
departure, the surface of the lake was shining in 
marvelous moonlight. What weather for Alpine 
climbing ! 

Here is no warlike scene. All is calm. Automobiles 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 205 

dash around, and the trees are covered with fruit and 
give the country a cheerful aspect. In the fields, 
sheaves of wheat lie in rows, but no one is there to 
gather them up. 

The encampment lacked straw, for the wheat was 
not threshed. Our chasseurs set to work threshing 
it! And I could not help thinking — O, irony of 
events! — of the prophecy of Isaiah: "They shall beat 
their swords into plowshares and their spears into 
pruninghooks." 

Alas! It is not for peace that we are preparing! 
Since my arrival, I have held maneuvers for the 
gunners every night and morning. I have a remark- 
able choice of men — giants who will have no trouble 
in following me for a long time carrying their guns 
on their shoulders. You cannot imagine the ardor 
which they put into the maneuvers ; we run over moun- 
tains and valleys, from position to position, and mount 
our guns in less than thirty seconds. My gunners, who 
are for the most part mechanics by profession, have 
in three days of exercise recovered all their dexterity. 

We quote here from a letter written by Captain Aweng, 
who had not known Roger formerly but who, in passing 
from the command of a company of sharpshooters at 
Morocco to that of a company of chasseurs, belonging to 
the Fifty-first Battalion, found himself at Aime with 
Roger: "Of all the comrades whom I knew during the 
first days of the war, he was certainly the most congenial, 
the most attractive. He won me immediately by his clear 
glance, so frank, in which one read valor and fidelity. 



2o6 ROGER ALLIER 

You should have seen him at Aime file by at the head of 
the machine-gun section. One felt in him the ardor of the 
soldier for whom the hour has come to accomplish great 
things, the quivering of the leader who has a knowledge 
of the grandeur and the beauty of his role. And to see 
the pace of his troop sufficed to enable one to judge of the 
qualities of the leader. In a very few days he had com- 
municated to all these reservists his zeal, his faith, a 
portion of the sacred fire which animated him. Of all 
these workmen he had made magnificent soldiers." In 
the course of one of these practice marches between 
Aime and Bourg Saint Maurice, Roger, four or five days 
before the departure, had received a sprain. It was of 
no consequence, but he was greatly troubled by the fear 
of having to stay behind. He did not tell of this acci- 
dent, which was learned only through Captain Aweng 
and Sergeant Jacquet. 

Aime, same date. 

We are ready to depart. The morale of my men is 
perfect. I have neglected nothing to put myself in 
contact with them and to gain their confidence. I visit 
their barn, and according to the sound tradition of 
officers of the alpins, I taste their soup morning and 
evening. I have devoted myself to those whose family 
situation is particularly trying.^ In short, the contact 

" "The lieutenant," relates Sergeant-gunner Jacquet, "gave us a 
proof of his goodness in the following incident. One man, 
Veyret, had lost his wife. He had two children. The lieutenant 
proposed to try to obtain for him leave to remain at the sta- 
tion. But the chasseur insisted on departing with him. He 
was killed. . . . During the trip from Aime to the front, 
knowing that I had had no news of my wife and that I was 
troubled on this account, the lieutenant kept coming to see me 
and encourage me each time the train stopped." 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 207 

is established, mutual confidence is complete. Famil- 
iarity at the canteen, impeccable rigidity at maneuvers 
— there is the result obtained in three days. 

Last Sunday, I learned at the post-office of the en- 
trance of the French into Alsace and the occupation of 
Mulhouse. I copied the long telegram with which you 
are familiar, since it must have been posted at Argen- 
tieres, gathered all my men before the barn, and told 
them the news. To describe their enthusiasm is impos- 
sible. I was myself so moved that I had hardly the 
strength to read the proclamation addressed by General 
Joffre to the people of Alsace. I thought that the 
owner of the barn, an old white-bearded peasant, was 
going to embrace me. He wept with joy and cried : 
"Bravo, Lieutenant! Bravo, Lieutenant!" while my 
men shouted : "Vive I'Alsace !" 

I announced to them that I would give them a quart 
of wine at the evening meal. 

At five o'clock I arrive. I find the barn all decked 
with flowers and trimmed with flags. On the door is 
nailed a great medallion of wood; a chasseur has 
roughly carved with a knife an effigy of the Kaiser 
with this legend : "William, the man whose hide we are 
soon going to get," Between two machine guns, 
draped with little French flags, is the table, or rather 
an old box which takes the place of one. On this box 
a handkerchief marked with blue squares serves as a 
cover; two glasses are there, one for the sergeant and 
the other for me ; lastly, two canvas buckets filled with 
wine. 



2o8 ROGER ALLIER 

With an emotion which you can picture, I recalled 
the memories of 1870: the anniversary of Reichs- 
hofifen, the invasion of Alsace, the bombardment of 
Strasbourg. I spoke to them of the people of Alsace, 
of their obstinate desire to be French. They listened 
with attention. Then, when I finished by raising my 
glass, and pledging the Republic, Alsace, and our com- 
ing victories, there was an ovation, spontaneous and 
wild. Chasseur Cottavoz, with a touching awkward- 
ness, handed me in the name of his comrades a large 
bouquet of field flowers, and found nothing to say to 
me but these simple words : "My lieutenant, we will 
follow you everywhere, and we will not do as did the 
Uhlans." This was an allusion to a patrol of twenty 
Uhlans who, seeing their officer fall, had fled and 
abandoned to the enemy the body of their leader. I 
looked each one in the eye, and their handshakes told 
me more than the speech. We can start together ; their 
spirit is tempered. Let us hope that it will be soon! 
All are impatient to start and too long a wait would be 
depressing. 

But it is good to live at such a time ! It is impossible 
for me to describe to you the deep emotions that an 
officer experiences on such occasions. It would seem to 
you fantastic. 

I have just received a pennon. Would that I could 
bring it back in a few months, riddled with bullets ! It 
is a blue pennon bordered with yellow, swallow-tailed 
in shape. On one side, it is decorated with a great 
hunting horn; on the other, it carries the insignia of 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 209 

the gunners — two guns crossed, with the inscription, 
"51^ Alpin, Section de Mitrailleuses." 

The Italian Government having again assured us of 
its neutrality and having expressed its surprise at see- 
ing so many troops massed in Tarentaise, Chapieux 
has just been evacuated. The Twenty-second left 
yesterday evening for an "unknown destination," that 
is to say, the eastern frontier. 

I wonder when this letter will reach you. If I could, 
I would bring it to you on foot — I am so near to you. 

Since we parted, mother and I, on the station plat- 
form at Annecy, I have not received a single letter, 
I know nothing! Have you by mistake addressed 
something to the Eleventh? I am eager to know you 
are all in good health, particularly our dear Idelette. 
I hope she is well. In spite of the fact that there is so 
little excitement at Argentieres, I hope that your vaca- 
tion will not seem too monotonous. 

I kiss you one and all. Best wishes to Maria and 
Cecile. 

Good-by for now ! 

Aime, August 12, 19 14. 
Dear Parents : 

Have I told you that we telegraphed as a body to 
Commander Gamelin to ask him to call us to the 
East? . . . 

Where shall we go? To Lorraine? To Liege? 
To Mulhouse ? . . . Whatever our destination — and 
we shall be far away when you know it — use no other 



2IO ROGER ALLIER 

address than "The Fifty-first Battalion of Chasseurs, 
at Annecy." They will forward it. 

The weather is still fine. This morning I had my 
gunners make a long march in the mountains. Since I 
have been waiting to face the great adventure, you can- 
not imagine the intense need which I have felt of im- 
pressing on myself all that I see; never have the moun- 
tains been so dear to me, never has the calm of the 
sunrise seemed so glorious. I feel a veritable love 
for Mont Blanc; and beyond the walls of the Redoubt 
I have said "au revoir" to Grand-Assaly and the 
glaciers of the Ruitor. They are friends; it seems to 
me that I talk with them. 

In our village peopled with weaklings — for all the 
strong men have gone — life is somewhat uneventful. 
My letter reflects this. Do not let my lot worry you. 
I lack nothing unless it is news, and I console myself 
by thinking that not a letter has yet reached the bat- 
talion ! 

Au revoir. 

I kiss you all affectionately. 

P. S. We are carrying our mountain artillery. 
Could it be to help force some passage of the Vosges? 

Alme, August 15, 1914. 
My dears i"^ 

This is a holiday for the women of Tarentaise. 
They are flaunting their rich ' costumes embroidered 

^ This letter is addressed to his brother and his sisters. 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 211 

with silk, their jewels, and their headdresses of velvet 
and gold. 

To celebrate this holiday, the last perhaps before 
the great departure, we offer our chasseurs ... a 
rum omelet made of 1,200 eggs ! Our provision officer 
had there a "colossal" idea. 

I have adopted the habit of having my letters regis- 
tered, thinking that they will take some few days less 
in reaching you. Henceforth address your letters to 
"The 51st Battalion of Chasseurs, 74th Division of 
Reserve," without any other indication of destination. 

I hope that I shall not leave Aime without receiving 
news of your health, for after that — 1 

A thousand affectionate kisses from 

Roger. 



Aime, August 18, 19 14. 
Dear Parents : 

At last, on the eve of departure, I receive news from 
you; a letter from papa dated the 9th, a card of the 
1 2th, and a long letter from Idelette. I did not re- 
ceive them a day too soon 1 

I would give much to reply to you at length and tell 
you, in unhurried fashion, the thoughts which I have 
in my heart. If papa knew to what a degree his 
anxieties coincide with mine! One is tempted to be 
discouraged by the thought not only that this terrible 
conflict will drag after it immense material ruin, but 
also that the moral and religious future of a great part 



212 ROGER ALLIER 

of humanity is at stake. The survivors of this ordeal 
will have before them a crushing task. 

We spoke of these things, Westphal and I, before we 
separated . . . and just now I learn that the Thir- 
tieth Regiment from Annecy, has an officer killed! I 
wonder if the Westphal brothers are safe and sound. 
We shall not know for a long time. Would that these 
good workers of the future might be spared! 

I will write you more at length three days from now. 
My preparations for departure force me to interrupt 
this letter. We leave tomorrow at noon. Our trip 
will take forty-eight hours, but we are ignorant of our 
destination. 

From the point at which we detrain I will write you 
at leisure, for we shall certainly not be engaged on the 
front line for several days. 

A thousand caresses to all. 

Aime, August 19, 1914. 
My dear Idelette : 

For two days each courier has brought to the bat- 
talion a huge box of letters awaited with feverish im- 
patience. The congestion of the mails is clearing up 
little by little. I receive your letters in the inverse 
order of their dispatch : today it is a card from mother 
dated the loth and a word from papa which is post- 
marked the 4th. 

I am curious to know whether all my letters have 
reached you. I was wrong in not numbering them — 
I shall do so in the future — but all those which I wrote 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 213 

at Aime were registered. Henceforth, I shall send the 
news to Vauvert, two lines to a letter. 

I was very much astonished to learn of the disap- 
pearance of my photographs. Do not let that trouble 
you. It is one of those insignificant small vexations. 
They must have been confiscated or rather lost after 
the opening of my letter. I will send you another, the 
only one I possess. 

Last evening a dramatic incident occurred. All was 
ready for our departure for the East. We were leav- 
ing at Aime our Alpine equipment, our cords, our tent 
canvas, our iron-tipped sticks. ... In the midst of 
dinner we received the order to stay at Aime. 

The diplomatic situation between Italy and Austria 
is, it would seem, very much strained. Austria 
threatens to declare war, and, in consequence of secret 
negotiations on the part of the Italian ambassador at 
Paris, the possibility of sending some of our Alpine 
troops to the Tyrolean frontier is being considered by 
the high military authorities. Public opinion in Italy 
has not ceased to manifest sympathy for France. 
There is nothing surprising about the initiative taken 
by the Italian Government and it would be on our part 
clever from a political viewpoint to intervene in case 
of a violation of Italian neutrality. No decision has 
been made, our departure is simply postponed. Per- 
sonally, this campaign in the Tyrol would captivate me 
by its originality . . . and then, too, I confess that, 
familiar as I am with the handling of machine guns 
in a mountainous country, I hesitate to have to adapt 



214 ROGER ALLIER 

myself overnight to the tactics of the plain. Let us 
wait and we shall see. . . . 

Since yesterday we have received news of the 
Eleventh. Thanks to its mountain artillery, it has 
taken the pass of Bonhomme and beaten back the Ger- 
mans on the Alsatian slope. Suddenly Commander 
Augerd saw the battalion rushing away from him. In 
spite of their efforts the officers were powerless to check 
the zeal of the chasseurs. The battalion rashly threw 
themselves forward in a bayonet charge and pursued 
the Germans . . . for two kilometers. In the hand- 
to-hand fighting several officers were killed — among 
them, they say. Captain Larchey, but it is only a rumor 
which may have no foundation and which must not 
be passed on. What is certain is that the commander 
was seriously wounded. 

Normally, it is Captain Larchey who should take his 
place. It is a heavy responsibility, that of command- 
ing a group of Alpins, six companies of 250 men each, 
150 special chasseurs — machine gunners, scouts, sig- 
nalers, telephonists — 300 gunners, and fifty sappers, a 
total of 2,000 men ! 

Here, as in all the townships in France, we receive 
official despatches. They are posted at the town hall. 
The schoolmaster writes a summary of them on a large 
blackboard for the benefit of the less learned. A board 
divided into two parallel columns, shows, day after 
day, contemporary events and those of 1870. All is 
illustrated with colored maps on a large scale. 

I am happy to learn that the stay at Argentieres has 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 215 

done you good and I hope that you will be able to re- 
main a long time. 

My congratulations for the support you have given 
to the Red Cross. I wish I could give you news of 
our people from Argentieres. Unhappily they are, for 
the most part, in the Seventh Company, which is en- 
camped at Macot. I met Demarchi and Arthur Ra- 
vanel; they are in good health. 

Good-by, my dear Idelette, I kiss you lovingly and 
send you a thousand kisses for all the family. 



Aime, August 22, 8 p. m. 
Dear Mother : 

Two words in haste before our departure — certain 
this time. In forty-eight hours we shall be in the re- 
gion of Belfort-Mulhouse. Please send me Pauline's 
address as soon as possible; is she at this moment in 
Mulhouse, in Strasbourg, or in some distant hospital? 

Perhaps, at the moment when I am writing to you, 
papa is at Maubeuge. The telegram by which he an- 
nounced to me his departure reached me only day be- 
fore yesterday. I received at the same time a despatch 
dated August 9th ! Moral : it is better to write letters. 
Even postal cards have, it seems, a right of priority. 
Hereafter I shall use only military cards; to escape 
the rigors of the censor I shall refrain from all com- 
ment on the country. You will receive on an average 
one every forty-eight hours. 

I should not wish, at the moment of departure, to 



2i6 ROGER ALLIER 

sadden you by stupid counsels which would seem like 
the provisions of a will. Without being at all tragic, 
however, it is better to foresee everything. If ever I 
disappear, Captain Dechamps will send you the pennon 
of the machine gunners. Ask him for it. It belongs to 
me.^ As for my sword, it is at Annecy, at the Verdun 
Hotel. I am taking a great saber, heavy and keen- 
edged, which belongs to the battalion. 

Excuse the dryness of this letter. I am all upset 
just now. I have just loaded my mules aboard the 
train. The prospect (quite new to them) of a railway 
journey threw them into a comic disorder in their cars. 
They are frightened and are dancing a mad saraband. 

Good-by, dear mother. As soon as I learn to what 
division we are attached, I shall send you my new 
address. 

Kisses to all. 

Roger. 

On the back of the envelope containing this letter, he 
gave his address as Besanqon. All the letters and cards 
which were sent to this address were returned. 

The battalion left Aime, August 22nd, toward nine 
o'clock in the evening. The journey was extremely hard; 
it should have required only thirty-six hours, it took fifty. 

^ This pennon was sent to Roger's parents, who had a duplicate 
of it made, which they sent to the machine gun section. When 
returning this relic Corporal-gunner Guillaume wrote (August 
7, 191 5) : "The pennon has been in honor everywhere where the 
51st Battalion of Chasseurs has fought, first in the Vosges, then 
in Belgium, and in Alsace, where we all not only feel grief in 
parting with it, but also joy in giving pleasure to the family of 
our dear lieutenant." 



AIME-EN-SAVOIE 217 

The men were crowded in cars where no rest was pos- 
sible. The officers occupied a special carriage, but they 
were scarcely more comfortable. Roger, with his insati- 
able desire for fresh air, found a means of getting settled 
elsewhere. At this time, they still believed in the efficacy 
of infantry fire against aeroplanes. The train had a flat- 
car on which, constantly, a halfsection watched for 
"taubes" in order to fire on them. Roger made the 
greater part of the trip on this platform. Between times, 
he went to see his men or pass an hour or two with his 
comrades. The train stopped repeatedly, but not at the 
stations. At Lons-le-Saulnier during a short stop at the 
railroad station, vendors offered postcards. Each one 
bought and hastily sent a message to his loved ones. 
Some of these cards reached their destination. Roger's 
— like all those which he must have written between Aime 
and Saint Die — never arrived. 



THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 
(August 25-29, 1914) 

Arrival at Saint Die — Gratin — An incident — The 
machine guns at Dijon — Bombardment of August 26th 
— A busy night — Bombardment of August 27th — In 
Saint Die — At Moitresses — Counter-attack of August 
28th — The grade crossing at Tiges — A heroic fight — 
Wounds — Disappearance. 



X 

THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 

August 25, 1914, at half past three in the morning, the 
battahon arrived at Saint Die.^ The village was a prey- 
to heavy anxiety. People no longer spoke of a victorious 
march across Alsace to the Rhine, which would cease soon 
to be a German river. A formidable enemy drive was 
rending our frontier at every point. The din of the heavy 
artillery was coming nearer and nearer. One felt the 
hour of the bombardment approaching. The rumor was 
going the rounds that all branches of the service were to 
be moved back and that the material of the railroad was 



^ See in the March 15, 1917, number of the Revue des Deux 
Mondes, Mr. Gaston Deschamps's article, "The Alpins at Saint- 
Die." With reference to the little-known battles that were fought 
in this region, the full significance of which is brought out by 
Mr. Deschamps, Mr. Gerald Campbell, war correspondent of the 
Times, has written : 

"Above all the Chasseurs-a-pied and Chasseurs Alpins, whom 
the Germans feared and respected more than any other troops in 
General Dubail's army, covered themselves with glory — glory 
that is none the less immortal, though very few individual acts 
of bravery will ever be recorded because most of the officers 
who saw them are silent in their graves. But that hardly matters. 
They were fighting not for glory and for recognition, but for 
France and the freedom of the world. And they did their work. 
If they had failed, if the Teuton hordes had broken through 
between Epinal and Toul, and the grand German plan had been 
carried out in all its completeness, then the whole defense of 
France would have broken down. But they did not fail. They 
gave their lives and France was saved." — "Verdun to the Vosges," 
pp. 129, 130. 

221 



222 ROGER ALLIER 

on the point of being removed to prevent its falling into 
the hands of the Germans. It was asserted that the last 
train would depart probably in the evening of that same 
day. The passenger station was terribly crowded. 
Citizens of Senones, of Provencheres, of Saint- Jean- 
d'Ormont poured in, fleeing they knew not whither. 
There were women and children who were trying to get 
away from the danger. There were wounded being 
brought in from all directions, whom it was necessary to 
get to the rear at any cost. 

In the midst of this medley of men and cars, the train 
bringing the Fifty-first has to stop at the freight station. 
The chasseurs, most happy to set their feet upon the 
ground at last, immediately prepare their coffee, right 
beside the carriages from which they have just alighted. 
While they are drinking it, a "taube" flies over their 
heads. It is the first bird of this sort that they have seen. 
They seize their rifles and fire at it. The crackling of their 
guns frightens some few inhabitants, who ask one another 
if the Germans are here and if a battle in the streets is 
beginning. They are quickly reassured. Soouj in simple 
marching formation, their guns on their straps, the alpins 
leave the station by an entrance facing the Burlin found- 
ries, follow to the left the road which goes along the 
track, crossing this to Foucharupt Street and then to La 
Bolle Street. They have been told a little vaguely that 
their camp is in the western part of Saint Die ; they will 
obtain more exact directions there. When they reach 
Park Street, they make a halt. On the opposite side of 
the street is the house of Mr. Jules Marchal, the mill- 
owner. This manufacturer and his family do not wish 
the chasseurs who have come to defend the city to want 
for anything. They distribute to them food, cigarettes, 
and refreshments. At the foot of the steps the officers 
talk with them. A lieutenant leaves the group an instant. 



THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 223 

goes to see his men, then returns, and in the name of his 
comrades and of the chasseurs, thanks Mr. Marchal and 
his family for what they have done for the battahon. 
This officer is Roger. He Httle dreams what he and his 
family will one day owe to this man of heart, so eager to 
provide refreshment for the alpins. 

The battalion moves on and, in Park Street, takes up 
its quarters in the building of a great factory, known 
as "The Eastern Dye-shops and Twist-mills," and in the 
places nearby. It is between eight and nine o'clock. The 
chasseurs are getting ready to encamp. The officers are 
assigned to their billets. Suddenly, at ten-thirty, comes an 
order to depart. The chasseurs assemble before the 
Church of Saint Martin. The sight of these men, firm 
and resolute in spite of the fatigue of the long journey, 
strengthens the courage of the inhabitants, who have been 
expecting the worst disasters. Under a leaden sky the 
battalion files by with measured pace and while the Ninth 
Company, under the orders of Captain Aweng, goes to 
make trenches in the plain of Sainte Marguerite, the 
others cross the bridge of the Meurthe and mount 
towards the village of Dijon. Roger goes there in his 
turn towards one-thirty, with his machine gun section; 
he installs himself near the Tenth Company, which now 
is to be almost constantly in his vicinity. The day is 
passed on this height. With his sergeant, Roger care- 
fully studies the ground and gauges the distances. 

In the afternoon, he receives the order to encamp a little 
lower down, at Gratin, a hamlet the houses of which are 
sheltered by the southern flank of the plateau. 

Ever since their arrival at the front, the chasseurs of 
the Fifty-first had found themselves in the midst of a 
tragic eddy of people in flight before an invader who was 
exercising methodical terrorism. The first troops they 
met on the firing line were in full retreat. Throughout 



224 ROGER ALLIER 

all this frenzied populace, military and civil, the most 
extraordinary stories circulated. At the most diverse 
points evidences had been discovered of the clever 
German system of espionage, organized in view of the 
premeditated war. The consequence was an impassioned 
reaction against that excessive confidence which for many 
years had permitted the enemy to place everywhere skilled 
observers to supply him with information and assistants 
all ready to help his armies on the line of march. After 
their former inability to see spies anywhere, people now 
were disposed to find them everywhere. Roger's men, in 
the strained atmosphere which suddenly enveloped them, 
did not escape this obsession. The owner of a farm where 
they were to encamp on the outskirts of Gratin, made a 
show of closing his door against them. It has never been 
quite clear what misunderstanding was produced be- 
tween the gunners and this peasant. His maid uttered 
some remarks which seemed singularly suspicious. Roger 
overlooked this altercation, which was threatening to 
postpone still further the rest which his gunners needed 
so badly, and installed them at this farm. They en- 
camped there with a section of the Tenth Company. 
They were convinced, however, that their hosts were hire- 
lings of Germany. 

Night comes. The mules are unharnessed. The 
chasseurs hastily take their food, which has just been 
brought from Saint Die. They settle down to enjoy at 
last a little rest. Suddenly, in the evening, the order 
arrives to go and occupy the road at the point of its 
entrance to Gratin. The section starts out immediately 
for the place indicated. It mounts the two machine guns, 
after barricading the road with whatever materials can 
be found in the village. Close at hand is the Gerard Inn, 
where it encamps. 

The gunners are haunted, however, by the suspicions 



THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 225 

which have been aroused in them. They continue to talk 
of these. Determined to investigate this affair, Roger 
returns at night, revolver in hand, to the farm where the 
alpins had received such a strange welcome and where 
some chasseurs of the Tenth Company still remain. 
The latter acquaint him with an incident which had 
excited them. Hardly had the gunners departed, when 
two infantrymen (they say, two men dressed as infantry- 
men) arrived; their bearing was peculiar; they appeared 
to be on good terms with those who had received the 
alpins with such a bad grace, they must have made them- 
selves known by some sign; the country folk had urged 
them to enter, had offered them refreshments, and had 
led them into a room where they could change their linen 
and in which they are now sleeping. Roger goes and 
wakes the sleepers ; they seem incapable of establishing 
their identity or of telling whence they have come. He 
has everybody arrested, the farmer, his servant and the 
two infantrymen, actual or pretended, and he has them 
led, surrounded by chasseurs with fixed bayonets, to the 
inn where the men are. There, he questions them anew. 
Although he does not intend to let traitors escape, he 
insists above all on not committing an injustice against 
the innocent. He immediately makes a thorough investi- 
gation. He questions the people of the hamlet and con- 
vinces himself that the farmer and his servant are not 
what has been feared, and he sends them home. As for 
the two soldiers, they are stragglers who wanted to keep 
as far away as possible from the places where they would 
be exposed to danger. Roger takes measures to obviate 
the possibility of their pushing their flight still farther. 
It is only then that he thinks of eating a light repast which 
the innkeeper hastily prepares for him.^ It is nearly 

^ Roger left at this inn the fork which he used to carry with 
him. His parents found it there, October 27, 1916. 



226 ROGER ALLIER 

midnight. He then goes out of the house, probably to 
seek a little rest in a neighboring barn where several 
officers have retired to sleep. 

The night passes without other incident. A little before 
dawn, the men are awakened. The companies encamping 
at Gratin again go up on the plateau of Dijon. They dig 
trenches. The battalion places the four 65's of the first 
group from Grenoble. While they are installing them- 
selves near Parish Road Number 4, Roger establishes his 
gunners to the left of it. He conceals them under some 
shelters of boards covered with pine branches. Somewhat 
later, wishing that his guns be carried a little forward, he 
has three new huts built. Following his habit, in order 
that the work may be quickly and well done, he is not 
content himself with commanding; he puts his hand to 
the task : "I saw this officer himself carrying boards," said 
Corporal Chaumont, of the Tenth Company. "All that 
was so well done," related Chasseur Carroux, of the same 
company, "that even though quite near, one could not 
suspect that there were machine guns there." After a 
relatively cool night, the heat returned, heavy and oppres- 
sive. Not a breath of air. The trees — a row of beeches 
with some plane trees, behind the position — have that 
mournful immobility which announces a coming storm. 
The heavy rumblings which they hear in the distance, 
however, are not those of thunder. The enemy cannon 
is advancing. 

At ten o'clock, the bombardment of Saint Die began. 
The heavy German pieces, the 105's, were firing from the 
knoll of Beulay. For the whole day the battalion was 
subjected to an incessant series of attacks of enemy fire, 
having found itself, almost from the moment of leaving 
the train from Tarentaise, in the midst of the furnace. 
A part of the shells were falling on the ravine called 
L'Enfer; one first saw an enormous column of yellowish 



THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 227 

smoke, then heard the frightful noise of the report. 
Other projectiles were aimed at the station of Saint Die, 
the embankment, and the bridges of the Meurthe. The 
alpins clearly distinguished six successive detonations of 
the German battery in action. On their right, they 
noticed an intense, incessant firing, dominated at times 
by the sustained crackling sound produced by machine 
guns. They chafed at waiting there, invisible spectators, 
and burned to throw themselves forward. The order was 
not to move. Near the end of the afternoon the missiles 
came nearer ; some "taubes" had located the alpins. The 
enemy firing was beginning to be better aimed when the 
storm, which had been threatening since the evening be- 
fore, broke with a furious violence and under bucketfuls 
of water shattered this offensive. Quiet reigned again. 

In the evening, Roger had to go to a house in Dijon 
where the commander was indicating the final prepara- 
tions for the battle. Then occurred an incident all the 
details of which it is useless to give here. Let us say 
only that this incident, complicated by the remembrance 
of what had taken place the night before at Gratin and 
by many repetitions true or false which had kindled the 
imagination, contributed to give birth to one of the first 
legends to be circulated regarding Roger's fate. It was 
related — one of his comrades picked up this story some 
weeks later in a hospital at Lyon — that on the evening of 
August 26th he had been killed in an ambuscade by Ger- 
mans disguised as Frenchmen. The incident was, more- 
over, of grave consequence to Roger, who without being 
able to find a minute of sleep, had to wander all night 
between Saint Die and Dijon and endure the keenest 
anxieties and the most terrific fatigue. It was a tragic 
preparation for the events of the morrow. 

At dawn, the gunners were at their post. A violent at- 
tack was expected. What happened surpassed all expec- 



228 ROGER ALLIER 

tation. The battery of 65's, with a valor to which ade- 
quate homage can never be paid, began by stopping 
the approaching German avalanche. It even made the 
enemy retreat; but suddenly, covered by heavy artillery, 
the avalanche again began to move. A shower of balls 
coming from the woods beat down on the battalion. The 
Seventh Company, which had constructed its trenches at* 
the outposts, went out with heroic zeal to meet the enemy, ' 
who was trying to debouch; a number of chasseurs fell 
and at their head. Captain Rousse-Lacordaire. 

Almost immediately the great shells came into play and 
the alpins then knew from experience what a regular 
shelling is. The machine gun section suffered particularly 
from it. While in full action the striker of a piece breaks, 
and jamming results. Almost instantly, a shell wounds 
Corporal Rouflfet; Sergeant Jacquet falls, with a broken 
arm. Roger also falls, perhaps bowled over by the blast 
of air in the trail of a shell. They think him killed. He 
gets up. Soon, he has about him only Chasseurs Dunant, 
Cottavoz, and Payre. He takes his position at the second 
piece and sustains the onslaught of the enemy. Forced to 
fall back, he puts his gun on his shoulder, entrusts the 
tripod to one of the men left to him and the box of dupli- 
cate pieces to the two others, leaves the plateau, the last 
man to go, and with some remnants of the Tenth Com- 
pany, descends to Saint Die. 

He enters the village by Saint Charles Street. He stops 
there, wondering if the battalion is pursued. "We waited 
some minutes," relates one of those who were with him. 
"Not seeing the Germans coming, our lieutenant sent us 
on a reconnaissance in the street which we were defend- 
ing. I had gone only a few paces when I saw the Boches. 
I warned our commander, telling him: 'There they are. 
They are coming up in columns of four abreast and in 
great numbers. Let us save ourselves, lieutenant.' 'No,' 



THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 229 

replied our officer, 'we must wait for them.' And in 
truth, some moments afterward we saw them appear in 
the street, in close formation. Under the orders of Lieu- 
tenant Allier we opened fire. This was terrible. The first 
lines were mowed down. A panic was produced in the 
ranks of the enemy, who retreated in disorder. Some 
even, not dreaming of getting away, forced the doors 
and windows by blows with the stocks of their guns and 
took refuge in the houses near by." 

A little later the Germans, wishing. to avoid another 
welcome of this kind, placed before them as shields 
four Frenchmen. Three were killed by the shots com- 
ing from a barricade which the alpins had had time to 
construct; a fourth, Mr. Charles Visser, was wounded. 
While coming up the street, he had remarked before he 
was wounded — which confirms what has just been said — 
that "each door had been forced, with hatchets or the 
butt-ends of guns." 

The troop of Germans which Roger had thus received 
was one of the advance patrols attempting to enter the 
city. A few minutes later, he was in the arcades of the 
town hall. There, finding Sergeant Hyvert of the Sixty- 
second Battalion of alpins with some of his chasseurs, 
he grouped them about him. It was then that he met 
with two wounded comrades. Lieutenant Hubault, of the 
Fifty-first Battalion, and Second-Lieutenant Lippmann, 
of the Sixty-second, who had known him at Albertville. 
He lent them assistance, and himself then prepared to 
receive the enemy, who he knew was not far away. He 
aimed his machine gun so as to sweep Orient Street, by 
which the Germans were expected to come. At what 
time did he arrive there? In all probability, about eight 
o'clock ; Lieutenant Lippmann met him there about nine- 
thirty; Mr. Freisz, printer, who lives opposite the city 
hall, remarked his presence in this place as late as half- 



230 ROGER ALLIER 

past eleven. The gun did not remain inactive. It aided 
in the defense of one of the barricades that had been 
erected in the neighboring streets. Several persons of 
the district, who could not see it from the cellars in which 
they were hiding, clearly heard several times its dry, 
rhythmic crackling. 

The alpins, however, who had made barricades and 
valiantly fought in several streets, were obliged to with- 
draw towards the west of Saint Die. Several times, 
under a rain of shells, they tried, but in vain, to reoccupy 
the city. Roger had steadfastly maintained himself with 
his gun near the arcades of the town hall. As he had 
done at Dijon, he withdrew only when in peril of being 
left alone. As night came, he was with his mixed section 
at Moitresses, the large sawmill on the way to Rougiville. 

In the morning of the twenty-eighth, the battalion, 
many officers of which were already disabled and which 
was itself very badly cut to pieces, got together in the 
village of Rougiville. In the afternoon, it set out in the 
direction of Saint Die for a counter-attack. On the way, 
Roger talked with Lieutenant de Landouzy and told him 
how, the evening before, surrounded by a rain of shells, 
he had to choose, for lack of a sufficient number of hands, 
between the box of duplicate pieces and a box of muni- 
tions, and decided to carry away with him the former. 
A little farther on, he walked along with Corporal 
Simond, today second lieutenant of the Thirty-second 
Battalion, whom he knew at Chamonix. Quite near the 
town of La Bolle, Fernand Simond and Roger separated. 
The latter went into action to the right in the direction 
of a little knoll; he sheltered his men behind a house at 
the edge of the road while he himself went forward, with 
a liaison officer, to locate a good position to mount his 
gun. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon. After 
some time, Sergeant Hyvert, not seeing him return 



THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 231 

and being uneasy, advanced in his turn and found the 
liaison officer wandering about. The latter told him, "The 
lieutenant is killed." Hyvert inquired about it. He was 
told that Second Lieutenant Allier, wounded in the legs, 
fell, picked himself up, and riddled with bullets, fell again 
in a heap. Thinking itself deprived of a leader, the 
machine gun section fell back. The truth was that Roger 
had not been hit at all, but had been lost by his liaison 
officer who, in the indescribable melee, thought he saw 
him fall. A bayonet charge executed by the Tenth Com- 
pany had cleared the ground, and Roger thinking his men 
were still behind him, had followed it with the hope of 
finding an excellent firing position. But while his section, 
thinking him killed, retreats, he is at nightfall in the first 
houses of Saint Die. 

He finds himself again with the same sections of the 
Tenth Company. "At eight o'clock in the evening," re- 
lates Corporal Chaumont, "we were in house No. 4. I 
do not know when and how we arrived there. What I do 
remember very well is the arrival of Lieutenant Allier, 
who cheered us by his presence. He was a leader on 
whom one could count. . . . Upon his arrival, he ques- 
tioned me. I was answering his questions when the 
Germans, who were near us, heard our voices and opened 
fire on us with the aid of a machine gun. We were pro- 
tected by a wall, two meters high, which separated us 
from the enemy. The crackHng of this gun aroused the 
lieutenant, who tried to learn its position. Aided by a 
young chasseur he climbed up on the wall, observed for 
several minutes, then, baffled, got down again. Not at all 
discouraged, he repeated this maneuver twice; nothing, 
absolutely nothing to be seen. While we were talking, 
always in a low voice, the fire of the German machine 
gun had slackened and become fitful. Suddenly, I heard 
a sound in the garden of our house. The branches of the 



232 ROGER ALLIER 

rose-bay were pushed aside. The night was very still. 
Not a doubt possible, some one was there. On the lieu- 
tenant's orders I advanced quietly, followed by two 
chasseurs. Hardly had I taken a few steps when a man's 
silhouette appeared in front of me. We seized him and 
made him a prisoner. He was so frightened that he 
could not answer me and the few words which he pro- 
nounced were in bad French. I led him to the lieutenant, 
who, after some questions, ordered me to have him bound. 
I did the job myself. A chasseur's necktie took the place 
of handcuffs. Being a little nervous and thinking him a 
German spy, I seized him very roughly. The lieutenant 
said to me quietly: 'Do not abuse him. Be kind. Lead 
him to the place where he says he undressed. If he does 
not speak the truth, so much the worse for him. And 
above all, do not let him escape.' I carried out the order 
of my lieutenant. The results taught me that he was a 
poor Savoyard who knew very little French, and who, 
having fallen prisoner to the Germans the evening of the 
twenty-seventh, had escaped and sought refuge in a little 
house. He had put on civilian clothes, hidden his belong- 
ings and military equipment, and spent the night under a 
bed, without any food. Having recognized the battalion's 
bugle call at the time of the charge, he had cOme out and 
tried to rejoin the French lines. When I had identified 
our prisoner, I let him go free. The poor chasseur was 
overcome with joy and began to cry. He could not dress 
himself in this place because a light would have betrayed 
our presence to the enemy. I took him to the Cafe de la 
Madeleine. An infantry officer who was at the Madeleine 
would not let us return to Lieutenant Allier. We slept in 
the restaurant of the Promenade St.-Martin. The night 
passed without incident." 

During the absence of Corporal Chaumont, one of the 
officers of the General Staff, Major Gay, who had been 



THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 233 

captain of the Thirteenth Battalion of alpins, and who 
three days before had taken command of a battaHon of 
the Ninety-ninth Regiment of infantry and was direct- 
ing the counter-attack, met Roger with his group of 
chasseurs. He recognized immediately the second lieu- 
tenant whom he remembered having seen in the Alps. 
He ordered him to organize the defense of the grade 
crossing at Tiges : "I put him for the night," related this 
officer, "in the flagman's lodge. The morning of the 
twenty-ninth I ordered him to go with some men to locate 
the position of the German machine guns which had put 
in their appearance near the station. He brought me the 
information wanted and I congratulated him on this 
reconnaissance, ably executed under very heavy fire. I 
left him on the crossing. I am happy to take advantage 
of this opportunity to render homage to the fine military 
qualities, to the absolute devotion which I found in this 
young second lieutenant during the few hours that he 
spent under my orders." 

From some of the chasseurs who were with Roger, the 
details of this defense of the grade crossing at Tiges have 
been learned. The lieutenant had stationed a double- 
guard, relieved every two and a half hours, and he 
watched to see that there was no relaxation in the execu- 
tion of this precautionary measure. He passed the night 
with his little command. At dawn, not suspecting that 
his machine gunners thought him killed, he made a last 
effort to find them. While the men made their coffee, he 
thoroughly searched Tiges and La Bolle Street. This in- 
vestigation was fruitless and he returned to the group of 
chasseurs with whom he had to hold this most important 
point. The little group saw clearly all the perils of the 
situation, but the lieutenant's bearing encouraged them. 
"His presence," wrote Corporal Chaumont, "was sufficient 
to give us courage again." "We felt," adds Chasseur 



234 ROGER ALLIER 

Carroux, "that we had a leader. It was the feeling of 
all. Later, when I had been wounded and my leg had 
been amputated and the lieutenant had disappeared, I 
used to say to myself : 'What a pity not to be making the 
campaign with him.' " 

Major Gay comes to inspect what has been done and 
it is then that he orders Roger to reconnoitre in the 
direction of the station. Before departing, Roger re- 
marks that the men show special concern in watching 
and checking the Germans who are attempting to advance 
by the meadow of Hellieule. He fears to see the enemy 
file out by La Bolle Street. "Glass in hand," relates 
Corporal Chaumont, "he examined the situation, as well 
as he could in the light fog. Hearing him call for a non- 
com., I reported to him, and received the order: 'Call 
some chasseurs, lie down there, and report to me what 
you see.' We were under a withering fire. The same 
machine gun of which I spoke in telling of the evening 
of the twenty-eighth, again opened fire. A second was 
installed in the station, at our right. The fog was slowly 
lifting. Lying down facing La Bolle Street, I saw some 
enemy sections crossing it, coming from the streets per- 
pendicular to the railway and gathering there. I warned 
the lieutenant, as he had ordered me. He said: 'Fire 
repeatedly, elevation of 250 meters.' Our fire was ter- 
rible. The cries of the wounded reached us. The gun at 
our right kept steadily at work, seeming even to increase 
its rate of fire. Without heeding the danger or noticing 
whether the two chasseurs were following in obedience 
to his command, the lieutenant set off to try to get its 
range." 

Some meters to the right of the road is a knoll. Roger 
begins his investigation there. But beyond the knoll there 
is a., great open space which it is impossible for him to 
cross. On the other side of this space a pile of boards 



THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 235 

meets his eye. It is without doubt behind this shelter that 
the German gun is hidden. Roger returns towards the 
road, slips across the railway, and only partially hidden 
by the hedge along the side of it, crawls in the direction 
of the station. 'T no longer saw him," says Corporal 
Chaumont. "How the time dragged during the few min- 
utes before his return! What joy when I saw his sil- 
houette reappear ! 'Are you wounded, lieutenant ?' I asked 
him. 'No, only some thorns in my hands.' " What the 
corporal did not know was that before rejoining the 
chasseurs, Roger had made his report to the major, who 
was awaiting him at the Madeleine Cafe. 

The position was critical. The road had been blocked 
the evening before by an improvised barricade, made 
mostly of little handcarts and wheelbarrows. It had 
been broken down that evening to let some cavalrymen 
pass. Roger had it reconstructed ; then, noticing some en- 
trenching tools which had been accidentally left there, he 
commanded his chasseurs to make a Httle trench as rap- 
idly as possible ; with a little pickaxe he himself set the 
pace for the work. Placing his men in the trench, he 
remained standing under a tree at the edge of the road, 
glass in hand, and directed the fire. Finding that from 
this point his vision did not take in enough of the length 
of La Bolle Street, he went out to the middle of the road 
from time to time, furnishing thus a target for the enemy, 
but also missing none of his movements. It was a little 
before nine o'clock. 

Thanks to the fog and also to the remarkable rapidity 
of its fire, this little group of fifteen chasseurs for more 
than an hour and a half deceived the Germans as to their 
numbers. Reenforced by a few infantrymen of the 
Ninety-ninth, who brought him some cartridges, he was 
able to intensify his fire and thus keep the enemy from 
advancing. Now, however, the fighters, who up to this 



236 ROGER ALLIER 

time had been spared, began to fall one after another. 
The moment came when the enemy cautiously advanced 
on the right and on the left. Roger's force was out- 
flanked. The idea of retreating did not occur to him. He 
was ordered to defend his position to the end. He asked 
for a volunteer ; Corporal Chaumont, who had not left his 
side since the fight began, presented himself. Roger 
tore a leaf out of his notebook, hurriedly wrote these 
simple words, "We are surrounded. Take the necessary 
measures," signed it, and commanded the corporal to try 
to run the barrier of fire and carry this news to Major 
Gay. He did not know that for some little time already 
that officer had been wounded and was a prisoner. The 
corporal himself was seriously wounded in the foot while 
trying to fulfil his mission. He dragged himself beyond 
the line of fire ; but there was nobody to whom he could 
pass on the order.^ 

Towards eleven or quarter past eleven, the lieutenant 
was struck in the left calf by a ball from a machine gun, 
He fell and in falling fractured the right thigh-bone. 
Three or four men rushed to him and carried him a little 
to the rear, to a place which seemed more sheltered from 
the enemy's fire. He commanded them to return imme- 
diately to their guns: "Do not mind me, we must hold 
out to the end" ; and lying on the ground, he kept shout- 
ing words of encouragement to them. Soon there was 
but one man left standing : Chasseur Carroux. Seeing the 
Germans coming on all sides, and in danger of being 
taken, Carroux hurled himself into the gate-tender's 
house, where he continued to fire through the window; 



^ Corporal Chaumont was cited in the Order of the Division : 
"By his firm and courageous attitude he furnished his men a 
very fine example in the course of the combats of the 29th of 
August, 1914; was wounded at the end of the action while carry- 
ing an order he had volunteered to deliver." 



THE BATTLES OF SAINT DIE 237 

then, his arm broken by a bullet fired point-blank, he went 
down into the cellar with two other wounded. The Ger- 
mans set fire to the house, but the cellar being vaulted 
the three men did not perish ; they stayed there four days. 
When they came out of it, the morning of September 
third, they were made prisoners almost immediately.* 
Carroux had time to find out that all the bodies of his 
dead comrades were still lying on the ground, but that 
the lieutenant had disappeared, as had also Corporal 
Minazzoli, who had fallen wounded at his side while 
stooping to assist him. 

* Carroux has received the Military Medal : "Was distinguished 
in all the battles by his energy and bravery. Wounded very 
seriously August 20, 1914, his right arm had to be amputated." 
The Germans did not remove him when they evacuated Saint 
Die. 



XI 

A GERMAN HOSPITAL 
(August 29-30, 1914) 

Arrival at the hospital — A German major — A place of 
pain and despair — Some kind-hearted women — Conver- 
sations — Departure — Discovery of the crime. 



XI 

A GERMAN HOSPITAL 

The Germans, as early as August 28th, had established 
in different houses of Saint Die several ambulances which 
were nothing more than very deficient dressing stations. 
One of them was in the Crovisier property, on La Bolle 
Street; another, very near it, in the offices of the day- 
school of the Jules Ferry College for young girls, on 
Hellieule Street. The installation had been very scantily 
made. Straw and hay had been thrown in the different 
rooms and on such litters the wounded were placed. 
There the Germans received first aid ; the French were not 
even examined. Generally, the wounded did not remain 
there long; they were either transferred to the city hos- 
pitals, or if they seemed fit to travel were sent to Alsace 
by way of Saales. 

In the afternoon of the 29th of August, Second Lieu- 
tenant Allier, who had been picked up at Tiges — we do 
not yet know by whom — was brought to the Jules Ferry 
College hospital on an ox-drawn cart, driven by a rather 
elderly man and a boy of some fifteen years of age. The 
officer appeared to be suffering terribly. An inhabitant 
of Saint Die, who lives opposite the day-school, Mr. 
Emile Morel, watched for the coming of French wounded 
and endeavored each time to render them small services. 
He was particularly struck by the officer's look of suf- 
fering. The wounded man's lips moved as if under the 
influence of a burning thirst. He saw him placed on a 
stretcher, and while it was yet in the middle of the street, 

241 



242 ROGER ALLIER 

he approached and asked for permission to offer a drink 
of water to the wounded officer. The German major, 
who had allowed him to approach other wounded, re- 
pulsed him brutally, saying: "To this one, never." Mr. 
Morel was struck by the accent of hate with which the 
major uttered those words. In each of his depositions, 
he came back to this point. Why did the major — whose 
name we have, and will make known when necessary — 
thus express himself? Had he just been told that this 
wounded officer was in so large measure responsible for 
the German check at Tiges? It may perhaps be wholly 
explained by the brutality which, according to all wit- 
nesses, characterized this physician, of whom his attend- 
ants were first to complain bitterly. 

The wounded man was brought into the house. On 
the ground floor a short stop was made and he was or- 
dered to hand over his money. He was found to be in 
possession of a sum equal, in German money, to 437 
marks. He also gave an address. Was this requested by 
those who took his money? It is not likely. It would 
appear rather that, suffering as he did and not knowing 
the seriousness of his wounds or whether he would re- 
cover, he thought of giving the address of the person to 
be notified in case of his death. He did not give his 
father's address, as he had reason to believe him no longer 
in Haute-Savoie but, no doubt, confined in the town of 
Maubeuge. But he knew that his mother was at Armen- 
tieres, at the villa Les Aiguilles (The Needles) ; he had 
urged her before the separation to stay there as long as 
she could. It was there he promised to send her news. 
Her address, therefore, was the one he gave with the 
money, which he deposited in the hands of some non- 
commissioned Wurtembergian officer. The whole was 
put in a box and placed with other similar objects taken 
from the wounded on arrival at the ambulance. 



A GERMAN HOSPITAL 243 

From the hall, where this took place, Roger was taken 
tip to the first floor, where he was put in a room at the 
end of the hall, on the right-hand side. The room was 
small. The first wounded brought in were placed along 
the Meurthe Street wall, their heads toward the wall, 
their feet to the interior of the room. The lieutenant's 
head was quite near the window, which opened on the 
street. When other wounded arrived and there was no 
space left to place them in the same way, they were 
simply deposited in the middle of the room, which soon 
became terribly crowded. In this room and the next, 
similar to it, there were only French wounded. The 
German doctors and attendants never appeared in these 
rooms. None of the wounds of these unfortunates 
were dressed; they were not even looked at. A soldier 
of the Twenty-second Infantry Regiment was in agony; 
a German came up, threw a look at him, and, without 
doing anything further, went downstairs again. The 
wounded would have been left absolutely without any 
care if a few kind-hearted women, some of them work- 
ing women, others belonging to the middle class, had not 
secured permission to enter this place of suffering and 
bring those poor wounded the aid of a little sympathy. 
These women, however, though most willing, were not 
qualified to dress wounds ; they could not even examine 
them ; they could do little but try to comfort, as best they 
might, their unfortunate compatriots. Often they had 
to confine themselves to washing the sufferers' hands and 
faces. They helped them get into the least painful posi- 
tions. They gave them a little nourishment, brought 
from their own homes. 

Roger was cared for particularly by one of these 
ladies, Mrs. Stuhl (now Mrs. Reichhn). He suffered 
so cruelly that, to alleviate his sufferings, not being able 
to do anything else, she took it upon herself to give him 



244 ROGER ALLIER 

an injection of morphine. This soothed him, and when 
night came, he appeared to rest a Httle. 

About eight o'clock in the evening, they brought and 
placed at his right side Battalion Commander Leroy, of 
the Twenty-second Infantry Regiment, who had been so 
badly wounded that speech was impossible. The two 
officers shook hands, and each of them tried to find in 
sleep a little rest and forgetfulness of their physical 
and mental sufferings. Night had come. The room was 
badly lighted. Groans and occasional cries were heard. 
The dimness of the light made it scarcely possible to dis- 
tinguish the painful silhouettes. About ten o'clock, an- 
other wounded man was brought into this crowded room. 
It was Chasseur Pierre Burnet, of the Sixty-second 
Alpine Battalion. It was almost impossible to come into 
the room without knocking against bodies. Burnet was 
left on the stretcher in the middle of the room, at the 
feet of Second Lieutenant Allier. 

Daylight came, driving the nightmares away, also put- 
ting an end to a sleep which the sufferings of each and 
the groans and lamentations of some of the wounded had 
rendered difficult for all. 

A short conversation took place between Burnet and 
Roger. Burnet had a brother-in-law named Beauquis, 
who he thought was with the Eleventh Battalion of 
Chasseurs Alpins, but who in reality was with the Fifty- 
first. Noticing the number eleven on the officer's uni- 
form, he asked, excusing himself for the liberty, if he did 
not have this Beauquis in his company and if he could 
give him news of him. The lieutenant answered : "Yes, 
it is true that I have the number eleven on my uniform, 
but I am of the Fifty- first. Moreover, I am not in a 
company, I command a machine-gun section." Burnet 
did not insist and the conversation stopped there. 

It does seem as if Roger's sufferings had become ap- 



A GERMAN HOSPITAL 245 

peased, but if any attempt was made to move his legs, 
or even touch them, the pain became again very acute. 
Two sisters, the Misses Epp, and one of their friends, 
Miss Muckensturm, who were attending the wounded in 
that room, had to take infinite precautions in going about 
among the many bodies and especially to avoid knocking 
against the lieutenant's legs. Seeing him, in a movement 
of anguish, place his hand on the top of the right thigh, 
near the groin, they had wondered if he were not wounded 
in the abdomen. 

Mrs. Stuhl, in her inability to give real care, was doing 
her best to draw the wounded men's thoughts away from 
their sufferings. She was doing everything she could to 
make those who were able speak to her. She thought the 
second lieutenant was an officer of the regular army; 
when her conversation revealed this to him, he told her she 
was mistaken. She was thus led to ask him what he was 
in civil fife. He answered that he had been studying law 
in Paris, where his family lived. It was for him a diver- 
sion to say a few words about his family. He spoke espe- 
cially of his mother, whom, he said, he resembled very 
closely. Always with the intention of diverting her un- 
fortunate interlocutor's mind, Mrs. Stuhl talked to him 
of Annecy, where he had been garrisoned, of its lake, 
and the mountains which surround it. She led him on to 
tell her that he had made long ski excursions in that 
region. The conversation was rather short. The officer's 
mind was busy with other thoughts and the volunteer 
nurse had around her many other wounded who claimed 
her attention. 

At exactly what time it has been impossible to ascer- 
tain — probably between half -past one and two o'clock in 
the afternoon — they came for the second lieutenant. He 
was brought down to the ground floor and taken through 
the courtyard to a conveyance which was standing in 



246 ROGER ALLIER 

Hellieule Street and which was employed to carry the 
wounded to Alsace. This conveyance was one of those 
large carts which are used to carry fodder and which 
have long wooden ladders on each side. It was littered 
with straw, and wounded Germans, of whom two were 
armed officers, were already installed in it. The French 
second lieutenant was in turn placed therein. Mrs. Stuhl 
accompanied him to the cart. In her presence the order 
was given to go as far as Saales and to come back quickly 
to take other wounded. The cart started . . . Mrs. 
Stuhl reentered the college. . . . 

What happened afterwards? ... It may, perhaps, 
not be impossible to specify exactly some day; that hour, 
however, has not yet come. Whatever happened, the 
second lieutenant was found, on the 19th of May, 1916, in 
a large grave where the Germans had placed the bodies of 
the wounded who died at that ambulance. His presence 
there was so inexplicable that we had to try to account 
for it. 

The autopsy, made by a military surgeon, revealed the 
fact that, besides the wounds in the legs, to which all the 
witnesses testified, the second lieutenant's skull had been 
horribly fractured. Death must have been instantaneous. 
The murderers' took the most minute precautions to pre- 
vent the young officer's body from ever being identified, 
should it be recovered. They picked his pockets and 
turned them inside out so as to make sure that they con- 
tained nothing which might tend to establish his identity. 
They even went so far as to cut off the upper left part 
of his underdrawers, which bore his initials. It goes 
without saying that his identification tag had been taken 
away. But the criminals did not foresee everything, and 
the proofs of their crime — we do not give them all here 
— shall, one day, rise terrible against them. Once again 



A GERMAN HOSPITAL 247 

the words of Christ shall be realized: "There is nothing 
. . . hid that shall not be known." 



A few days later, on September 10, 1914, a card from 
Roger reached Armentieres. It was written on August 
28th, a few moments before he entered the heroic struggle 
from which he was not to return. It contained these 
few words, followed by his signature : "Tout va bien. 
Affections" (All is well — Love). Today, this message, 
which seems like a message from the grave, takes a sig- 
nificance of which Roger probably did not think when he 
wrote it, but which he would most certainly not deny: 
"Whether we live, we live unto the Lord ; or whether we 
die, we die unto the Lord. . . . Greater love hath no 
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his 
friends." 



XII 

(May 19-July 13, 1916) 



XII 
MAY 19-JULY 13, 1916 

At the end of October, 1914, it seemed as if it would 
never be possible to learn Roger's fate. His locker, re- 
turned at that time, did not contain anything that could 
help to reconstruct his acts in the region of Saint Die. 
He probably was separated from it when the battalion 
arrived in the city. In it were all the letters received 
from his family at Aime, his pocketbook, and a series of 
"decisions." The last thing which he had put in, and 
which was found on top of his extra uniform, was his 
Bible. The machine-gunners, questioned carefully by 
a devoted comrade, Lieutenant Engel, said that they saw 
him advance towards the furnace, enter there, and disap- 
pear — that was all. 

An investigation of the most careful sort has little by 
little torn aside the veil. Except for the final drama, of 
which a mysterious Will delayed so long that which was 
to be brought to light, this inquiry has made it possible to 
piece together all that which one has just read and many 
other things besides. The affair of the grade crossing 
at Tiges, of the existence of which nothing was known 
at first, has come out little by little from the shadow. 
The survivors have related all the incidents of it with 
precision; and May 14, 1915,^ Roger was cited in the 



^ Vllth Army 

Extracts 

From the Order of Citations of the Seventh Army 

No. 12 of the 14th of May, 1915 

251 



252 ROGER ALLIER 

Order of the Army. Then the mystery of the German 
hospital was gradually cleared up. One after another, 
the details of Roger's stay there were brought out. The 
inquiry always terminated at the same point — the depart- 
ure of the wounded for Saales Pass in the fodder wagon. 

When time had rolled by, when all the details of the 
story had been discovered, when the final revelation 
would no longer put an end to investigations by making 
them appear useless, this revelation was achieved. May 
19, 1916, the "Lyons Committee of Search for the Miss- 
ing," with the consent of the military and the municipal 
authorities, ordered opened a great grave situated behind 
the Marchal mill in the suburb of La Bolle. Mr. Jules 
Marchal, who for eighteen months had devoted himself 
without stint to helping the AUier family in their search, 
was at Paris. He was informed of the sad discovery 
by telegraph, by Mr. Clemencet, chief inspector, who had 
himself aided the search with a touching zeal ; he had the 
sad duty of informing the parents. The latter, accom- 
panied by Roger's godfather, his uncle Paul Allier, ar- 
rived at Saint Die May 23rd. 

The body had been temporarily placed in a tomb in the 



General- Staff 
1st Bureau 

Are mentioned in the Ordre de I'Armee; 

Second-Lieutenant ALLIER Roger, of the nth 
Battalion of Chasseurs : 

"Although seriously wounded in both legs, con- 
tinued to encourage his chasseurs with the most 
remarkable energy." 

The General in Command of the Seventh Army, 
(signed) : DE MAUD 'HUY. 
A true copy, 
At Headquarters, September 19, 1915. 
Commander of the General Staff : 
Signed: G. Bouvier. 



MAY 19-JULY 13, 1916 253 

cemetery on the left bank, called the cemetery of Fouch- 
arupt. The morning of the 24th, Doctor Olivier, in the 
presence of several witnesses, made the verifications 
which establish the crime. The final burial took place 
at two o'clock in the afternoon. Tenderly wrapped in 
a large flag, the body was placed in a triple coffin. The 
grave is at an angle of two walks, and beside it stretch 
away in several rows the graves of a number of the 
chasseurs who fell in the battles of the latter part of 
August, 19 1 4. 

There had been no pastor in Saint Die since the begin- 
ning of the war. No army chaplain was in the neighbor- 
hood. But, when all was finished and when they were 
alone, Roger's parents and his uncle had together a 
moment's meditation and prayer. They read the 121st 
and 130th Psalms and verses 9 to 17 of the Seventh 
Chapter of Revelation, while the cannon thundered near 
by. 

Some weeks later, on July 13th, Roger's birthday, his 
parents, his sisters, and his brother stood around his 
grave and there read aloud the same passages. 

And henceforth they can no longer meditate on these 
sacred passages without seeing a vision of the bright, 
calm cemetery where, towering over the heroically de- 
fended city, a httle army of French soldiers, after barring 
the way to the conqueror, seems to stand guard before the 
immense horizon of the Vosges, facing the heights which 
lead to the Promised Land. 



